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  A new study about hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) from the university of Surrey was published in the journal Small. Recently, scientists have shown interesting research about nano porous hBN. They are considering its potential environmental applications like filtering pollution, hydrogen storage, and even as an electrochemical catalyst for fuel cells.  Dr Marco Sacchi is An associate professor at Surrey’s School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. He is Lead author of the study. He reports, “ Our research should light on the atomic scale processes that govern the formation of this remarkable material and its nano structures. By understanding these mechanisms, we can engineer materials with unprecedented precision, optimizing their properties for a host of revolutionary technologies.” Dr Sacchi worked with Austria’s Graz University of Technology. The team used functional theory and microkinetic modeling. This showed the growth of hBN. (It is created from borazine precursors....

Two interesting discoveries were made about graphene and published in the journal Nano Letters. Electron transport in bilayer graphene shows reliance on both edge state and a non-local transport mechanism. The study is led by professor Gil-Ho Lee and Hyeon Jeong from POSTECH’d Department of Physics. They worked with Dr. Kenji Watanabe and Dr. Takashi Taniguchi from Japan’s National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS).  Bilayer graphene is made up of two vertically stacked graphene layers. Graphene can modulate it’s electronic band gap by using electric fields that are applied. This property is essential for electron transport. Scientists are interested in exploiting the substance in “valleytronics,” the next generation of data processing.  A valley is a quantum state. It is an electron’s energy structure and is it’s data storage unit. Valleytronics Will enable more efficient, faster, data processing than even spintronics.  Valleytronics is based on the “Valley Hall Eff...

  Chirality is an object that cannot be super imposed onto their mirror images. It doesn’t matter which combination, rotation or translation is used; it’s much like our right and left hand. In Chile crystals, the arrangement of atoms makes a specific handedness. This factor can influence their electrical and optical properties. A team at Hamburg Oxford is studying anti-ferro chirals. It is a type of non-chiral crystal that acts just like anti-ferromagnetic materials. Its magnetic moments anti-align in a vanishing net magnetization. Both types of chiral (right and left left-handed substructures) render it overall, non-chiral.  Andrea Cavalleri From the max plank Institute for the structure and dynamics of matter is leading the research team.  The scientists used terahertz light to change this balance in the non-chiral material boron phosphate. The team published their works in the journal Science. Zheiyang Zheng Is lead author of this work. He reports, “ We exploit a mecha...

  New work is published in the Physical Review Materials journal. Antonija Grubisic-Cabo and her colleges at the University of Groningen have been studying 2D materials. 2D materials are sheets that are one atom thick. They have a myriad of electronic properties. If two sheets are placed on top of each other at specific angles, they can have new properties like superconductivity.  The team studied sheets of tungsten disulfide. When a bilayer or two sheets are stacked at an angle of 4.4°, the electrons will show a collective behavior. Giovanna Feraco is first author of the study. She reports about the electrons, “ When they are so closely connected, their collective behavior can create new fascinating effects.”  The scientists did not see this collective behavior in experiments. It can only be explained by the reactions between atoms in the bilayer.  Feraco summarizes, “…by studying the electronic substructure in the bilayer, we discovered that this material tends to ...

  Quantum technology is changing how we understand our world. One new technology is called macroscopic mechanical oscillation. These devices  are important in quartz watches, mobile phones, and types of telecommunications.  In the quantum world, these oscillators could help the very sensitive sensors used in quantum computing. It is necessary to control  mechanical oscillators by developing new technologies.  However, controlling them is challenging. It requires near perfect units, meaning identical. Research in quantum optomechanics  is based on a single oscillator. Quantum phenomenon like ground state, cooling and quantum squeezing can be demonstrated.  Collective quantum behavior is elusive. This is where many oscillators act like one. These dynamics are key to making more powerful quantum systems, however, they demand surprisingly precise control over multiple oscillators.  Researchers are being led by Tobras Kippenberg at EPFL. They have reac...

  The optical trap is considered one of the  greatest innovations in optics and photonics. The beginning works were created by Arthur Ashkin in the 1970s.  Currently it is being used in a large variety of fields, including physics, engineering and life sciences. Just like its thermal and acoustic counterparts, the trap is usually bright or dark and is usually located at the field intensities maximum or minimum.   New research was published in Physical Review A. Professor Yao Baoli and Dr Xu Xiaohao are from the Xi’an Institute of Optical and Precision Mechanics (XIOPM) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. They have revealed a full gray optical trap in structured light. The trap is able to capture nanoparticles, but shows at the location where the intensity of light is not maximized or minimized. The scientists developed a high order multipole model. This model is for gradient forces and is based on multipole expansion theory. The team immersed Si particles into a stru...

  Metasurfaces are a planar arrays of nanostructures. A worldwide review of advancements concerning the integration of metasurfaces into existing technologies is currently taking place.  This will lead to breakthroughs in augmented and virtual reality, thermal management, solar energy and even quantum technologies. The review was published in the journal Science on November 29, 2024. The research was led by the A*STAR Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (A*STAR/MRE) Stanford University, and the Nanyang Technological University of Technology and Design. Metasurfaces are designed as extremely thin, engineered layers made of tiny building blocks called nanostructures. Metasurfaces can bend, reflect or change light with precision. These materials may offer advancements in device performance. For example, metasurface integrated photodetectors capture more complex light information. This will drive progress in imaging systems and optical computing. LED integrated metasur...