Research

Researchers at the University of Ottawa have found that engineered achiral (symmetric) materials, called achiral plasmonic metasurfaces, can absorb light differently depending on the handedness of the wavefront of light. This was surprising because, for years, such materials were found to be indifferent to any optical probes and does not show such selective absorption. Their findings showed that this selective ...

Researchers at the University of Tokyo have invented a new component for all-optical computing, that might bring this interesting technology out into the light. Optical computing is tempting but unwieldy technology. In principle it can be inherently parallel – a wavefront is effectively a 2D matrix of intensity (or phase, or polarisation) values, and if this is processed through an ...

TDK has created a spin-memristor for analogue neural networks, and built a network that can separate three types of sound in real-time. It has been collaborating on memristors with French research lab CEA since 2020, and has now announced a collection of memristors packaged in an IC (described as ‘three elements by two sets’, photo). Semiconductor process behind this IC ...

Gallium nitride-based LEDs and power transistors can be made on the same IC, according to scientists from Cornell University and the Polish Academy of Sciences. The trick is to used both sides of the wafer, and exploit a quirk of GaN. “GaN is unique among wide-bandgap semiconductors because it has a large electronic polarisation along its crystal axis, which gives ...

Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) will be collaborating further with both Collins Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney on commercial aerospace technology research following the signing of a new agreement. The new master research agreement (MRA) will enable “bilateral collaboration across a range of sustainable aviation research opportunities, including advanced materials, hydrogen propulsion, advanced manufacturing and industrial design” says the ...

Orbital angular momentum has the potential to transfer, manipulate and store information. They are made from the orbital angular momentum of electrons orbiting their atomic nucleus – and the study of them has been dubbed ‘orbitronics’, analogous to spintronics for manipulating electron spins. “This field holds great promise for memory devices, particularly because a large magnetisation could potentially be generated ...

CSEM, the Swiss technology innovation centre is part of a consortium which is developing an AI-equipped drone to identify invasive and potentially damaging plants. Buddleia, or butterfly bushes, and Japanese knotweed can replace native plant species and others like narrow-leaved ragwort are poisonous. They can cause damage to the infrastructure, damaging railway tracks and signal installations or reduce sight lines. ...

A simple non-contact camera technique has been used to analyse blood lipid levels after  someone eats high-fat and low-fat meals, and agrees well with blood sample based measurements. Spatial frequency domain imaging (SFDI) is the technique, where a light source obliquely illuminates the surface to be analysed and the camera take a perpendicular view. In this case, the surface was ...

Students at the universities of Surrey, Portsmouth and Southampton will have the opportunity to design and launch a satellite mission, thanks to a new programme. The three universities are partners of the Space South Central regional space cluster, which is backed by the UK Space Agency. And their initiative is dubbed JUPITER – the Joint Universities Programme for In-Orbit Training, ...

A love of chemistry and a continuing curiosity took Amaia Zurutuza to Scotland and back home to Spain and some exciting work with the Graphene Flagship. Interview by Caroline Hayes. Graphenea Semiconductor has been a partner of the Graphene Flagship from the project’s inception in October 2013. It has played a part in different multi-project wafer (MPW) runs, including spintronics, ...