Researchers at ShanghaiTech University, the University of Toronto and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have recently developed new solution-processed upconversion photodetectors, which are a class of devices that can detect or respond to light. These devices, presented...
Research
Simultaneously tuning the surface structure and oxidation state of copper catalysts
Electrical energy derived from renewable sources could be used to rearrange bonds in carbon dioxide (CO2) and water molecules into complex hydrocarbons, which can then be burnt to produce new energy and CO2, ultimately enabling a carbon cycle. Copper is a catalytic...
A quantum metasurface that can simultaneously control multiple properties of light
Metasurfaces are artificial materials designed at the nanoscale, which can control the scattering of light with exceptionally high precision. Over the past decade or so, these materials have been used to create a variety of technological tools ranging from sensors to...
Research identifies detection constraints for dark photons
Past cosmological and astrophysical observations suggest that over one quarter of the universe's energy density is made up of a non-conventional type of matter known as dark matter. This type of matter is believed to be composed of particles that do not absorb, emit...
Study explores the effects of bilingualism on the developing brain
Recent research in the field of neuroscience suggests that knowing and speaking more than one language could impact the speaker's brain structure. Some studies, for instance, have found differences in the cortical regions and subcortical grey matter structures of...
A flexible microrobot that can survive almost any deformation
An International research team led by Dr. Oliver Schmidt, working at Chemnitz University of Technology (TU Chemnitz) and Leibniz IFW Dresden has recently developed a microrobitic system with a wide range of possible applications, ranging from completing...
LoCoQuad: An arachnoid-inspired robot for research and education purposes
Animal behaviors and the biological mechanisms underpinning them are among the greatest sources of inspiration for robotics studies. Over the past decade or so, countless research teams at universities and companies worldwide have been trying to develop robots that...
Using skyrmions to create artificial synapses for neuromorphic computing
Skyrmions are ultra-stable atomic objects first discovered in real materials in 2009, which have more recently also been found also to exist at room temperatures. These unique objects have a number of desirable properties, including a substantially small threshold...
A new search for axion dark matter rules out past numerical predictions
The ADMX collaboration, a group of researchers working at universities across the U.S. and Europe, has recently performed a new search for invisible axion dark matter using a cavity haloscope and a low-noise Josephson parametric amplifier. Cavity haloscopes are...
An optically driven digital metasurface to bridge visible light and microwave communications
Coding, digital, and programmable metasurfaces are engineered surfaces that can be used to manipulate electromagnetic waves, first introduced by Prof. Tie … s colleagues in 2014. Due to their many advantageous characteristics, these artificial structures have recently...