Engineered metasurfaces reflect waves in unusual directions In our daily lives, we can find many examples of manipulation of reflected waves, such as mirrors, or reflective surfaces for sound that improve auditorium acoustics. When a wave impinges on a reflect …
Sound waves let quantum systems 'talk' to one another Researchers at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory have invented an innovative way for different types of quantum technology to "talk" to each other using sound. The st …
Implementing a practical quantum secure direct communication system Quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) is an important branch of quantum communication, based on the principles of quantum mechanics for the direct transmission of classified information. While re …
Researchers discover anti-laser masquerading as perfect absorber Researchers at Duke University have discovered that a perfect absorber of electromagnetic waves they described in a 2017 paper can easily be tweaked into a sort of "time-reversed laser" know …
After 90 years, a better way to measure the composition of paper Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in collaboration with the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO), have developed a novel, nondestructive method to rapidly me …
CMS gets first result using largest-ever LHC data sample Just under three months after the final proton–proton collisions from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)'s second run (Run 2), the CMS collaboration has submitted its first paper based on the full L …
Shaping light lets 2-D microscopes capture 4-D data Rice University researchers have added a new dimension to their breakthrough technique that expands the capabilities of standard laboratory microscopes.
Gravitational waves will settle cosmic conundrum Measurements of gravitational waves from approximately 50 binary neutron stars over the next decade will definitively resolve an intense debate about how quickly our universe is expanding, according t …
Running an LED in reverse could cool future computers In a finding that runs counter to a common assumption in physics, researchers at the University of Michigan ran a light emitting diode (LED) with electrodes reversed in order to cool another device me …
Light and sound gauge the temperature of deep tissues Measuring a fever is usually pretty simple: place a thermometer under a patient's tongue and get an accurate temperature reading within 30 seconds. But that simplicity does not translate when it …
Hyperbolic metamaterials enable nanoscale 'fingerprinting' Hyperbolic metamaterials are artificially made structures that can be formed by depositing alternating thin layers of a conductor such as silver or graphene onto a substrate. One of their special abil …
Upgrading ALICE: What's in store for the next two years? With massive red doors weighing 350 tonnes each, it takes more than uttering "open sesame" to open the ALICE detector. Behind the doors lie the inner workings of a unique detector built to s …
Trouble on the surface begins with a wave of tiny bubbles An air bubble breakup that may compromise the performance of droplet-derived coatings has been uncovered by a team led by Sigurdur Thoroddsen and his Ph.D. student Kenneth Langley at KAUST.
X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of hydrogen and helium For the first time scientists measured the vibrational structure of hydrogen and helium atoms by X-rays. The results disprove the misconception that it's impossible to obtain X-ray photoelectron …
Weyl goes chiral Quasiparticles that behave like massless fermions, known as Weyl fermions, have been at the center of a string of exciting findings in condensed matter physics in recent years. The group of physicist …
Scientists build the smallest optical frequency comb to-date Optical frequency combs are laser sources whose spectrum consists of a series of discrete, equally spaced frequency lines that can be used for precise measurements. In the last two decades, they have …
Questions in quantum computing—how to move electrons with light Electronics rely on the movement of negatively-charged electrons. Physicists strive to understand the forces that push these particles into motion, with the goal of harnessing their power in new techn …
Quantum strangeness gives rise to new electronics Noting the startling advances in semiconductor technology, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore proposed that the number of transistors on a chip will double each year, an observation that has been born out …
Innovative method enables new view into Earth's interior An innovative X-ray method enables new high-pressure investigations of samples under deep mantle conditions. The technique, which was developed by a team led by Georg Spiekermann from DESY, the German …