An international research group led by scientists from the University of Bristol and the Universities of Glasgow (UK) and Sun Yat-sen and Fudan in China, have demonstrated integrated arrays of emitters of so call 'optical vortex beams' onto a silicon chip. The work is featured on the cover of the latest issue of Science magazine, published tomorrow [19 October 2012].
Spintronic technology, in which data is processed on the basis of electron “spin” rather than charge, promises to revolutionize the computing industry with smaller, faster and more energy efficient data storage and processing. Materials drawing a lot of attention for spintronic applications are dilute magnetic semiconductors – normal semiconductors to which a small amount of magnetic atoms is added to make them ferromagnetic. Understanding the source of ferromagnetism in dilute magnetic semiconductors has been a major road-block impeding their further development and use in spintronics. Now a significant step to removing this road-block has been taken.
In the far future, superconducting quantum bits might serve as components of high-performance computers. Today already do they help better understand the structure of solids, as is reported by researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in the Science magazine.
At very low temperatures, close to absolute zero, chemical reactions may proceed at a much higher rate than classical chemistry says they should – because in this extreme chill, quantum effects enter the picture.
University of Adelaide applied mathematicians have extended Einstein’s theory of special relativity to work beyond the speed of light.
Understanding the phenomenon of blackbody radiation – electromagnetic emissions that play a role in a broad range of physical systems – is an important part of physics instruction at both the high school and college level.
Geneva and Frankfurt, 10 October 2012. CERN(1) is today showcasing its science at the Frankfurt Book Fair(2).
The 2012 Massey Lectures feature a personal and fascinating work titled The Universe Within: From Quantum to Cosmos by Neil Turok, Director of Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2012 to Serge Haroche, Collège de France and Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France and David J. Wineland, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and University of Colorado Boulder, CO, USA “for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems”.
Serge Haroche and David J. Wineland have independently invented and developed methods for measuring and manipulating individual particles while preserving their quantum-mechanical nature, in ways that were previously tho...