Science

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Cesium atoms shaken, not stirred, to create elusive excitation in superfluid

Scientists discovered in 1937 that liquid helium-4, when chilled to extremely low temperatures, became a superfluid that could leak through glass, overflow its containers, or eternally gush like a fountain.

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University of Chicago scientists can create an exotic, particle-like excitation called a roton in superfluids with the tabletop apparatus pictured here. Posing from left are graduate students Li-Chung Ha and Logan Clark, and physics Professor Cheng Chin.

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Cesium atoms shaken, not stirred, to create elusive excitation in superfluid

Scientists discovered in 1937 that liquid helium-4, when chilled to extremely low temperatures, became a superfluid that could leak through glass, overflow its containers, or eternally gush like a fountain.

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University of Chicago scientists can create an exotic, particle-like excitation called a roton in superfluids with the tabletop apparatus pictured here. Posing from left are graduate students Li-Chung Ha and Logan Clark, and physics Professor Cheng Chin.

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X-ray pulses uncover free nanoparticles for the first time in 3-D 'Super microscope' reveals unexpected variety of shapes

For the first time, a German-American research team has determined the three-dimensional shape of free-flying silver nanoparticles, using DESY's X-ray laser FLASH. The tiny particles, hundreds of times smaller than the width of a human hair, were found to exhibit an unexpected variety of shapes, as the physicists from the Technical University (TU) Berlin, the University of Rostock, the University of Rostock, the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in the United States and from DESY report. Besides this surprise, the results open up new scientific routes, such as direct observation of rapid changes in nanoparticles.

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This is a wide-angle X-ray diffraction image of a truncated twinned tetrahedra nanoparticle.

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Penta-graphene, a new structural variant of carbon, discovered: The unique structure of the thin sheet of pure carbon was inspired by pentagonal tile pattern found in the streets of Cairo

Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University and universities in China and Japan have discovered a new structural variant of carbon called "penta-graphene" - a very thin sheet of pure carbon that has a unique structure inspired by a pentagonal pattern of tiles found paving the streets of Cairo.

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The newly discovered material, called penta-graphene, is a single layer of carbon pentagons that resembles the Cairo tiling, and that appears to be dynamically, thermally and mechanically stable.

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Rediscovering spontaneous light emission: Berkeley researchers develop optical antenna for LEDs

Berkeley Lab researchers have developed a nano-sized optical antenna that can greatly enhance the spontaneous emission of light from atoms, molecules and semiconductor quantum dots. This advance opens the door to light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that can replace lasers for short-range optical communications, including optical interconnects for microchips, plus a host of other potential applications.

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Spontaneous light emissions from LEDs can be substantially enhanced when coupled to the right optical antenna, making them comparable to the stimulated emissions from lasers.

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Nanomaterials Used to Reduce Heat Generated by LED Panels

Iranian researchers from Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman in a joint research with their counterparts from Amirkabir University of Technology produced nanostructures that can be used in LED panels of TVs and computers.

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Performance Drop in Solar Cells Prevented by Nanotechnology

Iranian researchers used nanotechnology to produce solar cells that have high efficiency in the conversion of solar energy to electricity.

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Pinholes are Pitfalls for High Performance Solar Cells

The most popular next-generation solar cells under development may have a problem - the top layer is full of tiny pinholes, researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University in Japan have found.

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Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) images show pinholes in the spiro-MeOTAD when it is first prepared (top) and after air exposure for 24 hours (bottom). The average diameter of the pinholes is about 135 nanometers, with some as large as two microns.

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CAT Scan of Nearby Supernova Remnant Reveals Frothy Interior

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ESA and Airbus DS confirm partnership to complete the full European Data Relay System

This decision follows the successful test campaign of the first multigigabit optical intersatellite link between the Copernicus Sentinel-1A and Alphasat satellites. This campaign, a precursor of the European Data Relay System, or EDRS, has paved the way for an entirely new approach of delivering data, with space systems becoming part of the global Big Data challenge.