The climate crisis arising from greenhouse gas emissions has led to a greater emphasis on energy security, and affordability, to ensure a smooth energy transition. The decarbonization of the energy sector will promote a reduction in carbon emissions and will minimize catastrophic natural disasters. The deployment of low-carbon technology towards a sustainable and clean energy […]
Condensed matter • Materials • Nanotechnology • Quantum physics
Sensors are essential tools for detecting and analysing trace molecules in a variety of fields, including environmental monitoring, food safety, and public health. However, developing sensors with high enough sensitivity to detect these tiny amounts of molecules remains a challenge. One promising approach is surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA), which uses plasmonic nanostructures to amplify the […]
Hopfions, magnetic spin structures predicted decades ago, have become a hot and challenging research topic in recent years. The first experimental evidence has just been presented in Nature . A deeper understanding of how different components of materials function is important for the development of innovative materials and future technology. The research field of spintronics […]
nanocolloids The increasing attention to the design and experimental development of self-oscillating matter is primarily motivated by the potential use of such systems in emerging technologies (e.g., light engines) comprising compact components and minimum energy consumption. Self-oscillation is the generation of a periodic change in a system fuelled by a steady, non-periodic power source. The […]
The recent COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the vulnerabilities of our society to infectious diseases and the limitations of the tools available for viruses detection. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and antigens tests have been useful to monitor and contain the extension of the last pandemic, however it demonstrated to have severe limitations. PCR is a highly […]
roof Concrete sidewalks, black asphalt streets, traffic, brick and steel buildings. These common city elements can retain heat and increase temperatures in a phenomenon called the urban heat island effect. With increasingly warming temperatures during the summer months, urban cities like Chicago need to arm decision makers and communities with information about strategies to help […]
The intricate relationship between lattice geometry and topological electronic behaviour determines the ground state properties of materials. The non-trivial band topology of the kagome lattice – it consists of the vertices and edges of the trihexagonal tiling – is being extensively explored as candidates to engineer Dirac fermions, topological flat bands, magnetic Weyl semimetals or […]
Billions of tiny particles packed into rechargeable lithium-ion battery electrodes are responsible for storing charge and making it available when it’s needed to do work. X-ray movies of this process show the particles absorbing and releasing lithium ions as the battery charges and discharges. Now, in an important step forward, researchers have used a type […]
Magnons or spin waves are elementary quasiparticles, which represent a collective motion of magnetic moments in ordered systems. Spin waves can propagate in materials and therewith transport a spin current. This spin flow requires no electrical charge transport and therefore no electrical losses creating Joule heating. Spin waves enclose a wide frequency range, from gigahertz […]
We all know what glass is, don’t we? We just point to the nearest window and it is that transparent sheet. Humans have been producing glass for at least 6,000 years, way before they knew how to smelt iron. Actually, the chemistry is well known: to produce window glass we just heat a mixture of […]