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Category: energy

Microcombs unlock 112Gbps wireless link at 560GHz for 6G

Researchers at Tokushima University have demonstrated single-channel wireless transmission at 112 Gbps in the 560 GHz band using soliton microcombs, marking a significant step toward next-generation 6G communications.

Conventional electronic technologies face fundamental limitations in generating stable high-frequency signals beyond 350 GHz, including reduced output power and increased phase noise. These challenges have hindered the realization of ultra-high-speed wireless communication in the terahertz regime, which is expected to play a key role in future 6G systems.

Microcomb system tackles key hurdles To overcome these challenges, the research team developed a microcomb-driven terahertz wireless communication system that combines fiber-coupled microcombs with high-order modulation techniques. The system leverages the high frequency stability and low phase noise of microcombs to generate a low-noise terahertz carrier.

Solar-powered desalination system turns ocean water into drinking water, without waste

The United Nations estimates that 2.2 billion people lack safely managed drinking water, and communities from California to the Middle East rely on desalination plants to convert ocean water to fresh water. Common desalination techniques such as reverse osmosis and thermal distillation are energy-intensive, require pre- and post-water treatment, and leave behind a concentrated saltwater byproduct called brine that wreaks havoc on sea life when it’s deposited back into the ocean by raising the salt level and lowering oxygen in the water.

Diamond quantum sensor could reveal elusive altermagnets

For nearly a century, there were two known kinds of magnets. Ferromagnets are the classic magnets that attract metal and keep pictures stuck to the refrigerator. Antiferromagnets hide their magnetism at the atomic scale but are increasingly prized for their technological potential. A third category discovered within the last decade may combine the best qualities of both. Dubbed altermagnets, they could someday help create faster, more energy-efficient electronics.

Now, University at Buffalo physicists are proposing a quantum sensing system to make identifying altermagnets much simpler. Described in a study published in Physical Review Letters, the theoretical technique would measure how a suspected altermagnet disturbs a tiny magnetic defect in a nearby diamond. The way the defect’s magnetic signal relaxes could provide evidence of altermagnetism.

“This could be the first building block of a new generation of experiments that determine whether a material is an altermagnet,” says corresponding author Jamir Marino, Ph.D., assistant professor in the UB Department of Physics, College of Arts and Sciences. “Altermagnets could completely revolutionize the way we transport information, but to confirm if this elegant theory is true, we need experiments that identify altermagnets and confirm they behave the way scientists predict.”

Ultrafast holographic imaging reveals electron and magnetic dynamics inside next-generation materials

An extremely fast microscopy method to research the interaction of light and matter makes it possible to study optical processes on very short timescales. To this end, a German–Italian research team is combining holographic imaging with ultrafast spectroscopy in an innovative way. In this manner, even extremely short-lived electronic and magnetic phenomena—which play a major role in the development and application of novel energy materials—can be observed.

The research was conducted as part of an international collaboration between scientists from the Institute for Physical Chemistry at Heidelberg University, the Polytechnic University of Milan, and the Institute for Photonics and Nanotechnologies in Milan (Italy). The findings are published in the journal Nature Photonics.

At the heart of the research is a pump-probe microscope, which is used to conduct so-called excitation and detection experiments. In this process, the material under investigation is first excited by a short light pulse, while a second pulse records the time-dependent response. By comparing measurements taken with the excitation on and off, these processes can be accurately reconstructed.

Rare observations reveal an X9 solar flare before it erupts

Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation from the sun’s surface, which can wreak havoc on Earth’s power grids, damage orbiting satellites, and pose serious radiation risks to astronauts. Yet despite decades of study, the processes that trigger these eruptions remain poorly understood.

In a new preprint on arXiv, a team led by Louis Seyfritz at the New Jersey Institute of Technology has captured rare observations of a large flare in the hours before it erupted, offering new clues about what sets these events in motion.

Collective vibrations unlock fast ion flow in superionic crystals

In the race to develop safer, faster-charging solid-state batteries and more efficient thermoelectric conversion technologies, engineers and scientists have long faced a fundamental challenge: how to ensure ions move through hard, solid materials as quickly as they do in liquids?

A team led by Prof. Zhou Yanguang, Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), discovered a novel mechanism for rapid ion transport in solids, opening new avenues for materials design.

The study shows that the ionic transport is governed by collective dynamics. The results were published in the journal Physical Review Letters, titled “Fast Ionic Transport Governed by Collective Vibrational Dynamics.”

Rethinking hysteresis—a thermodynamic framework for history-dependent solids

Many solid materials “remember” their past. A piece of metal may respond differently after being stretched, heated, or cooled, and memory materials rely precisely on this kind of history-dependent behavior. This phenomenon, known as hysteresis, is central to technologies such as memory devices, energy conversion materials, and durable structural materials.

However, hysteresis has long posed a problem for thermodynamics. In conventional thinking, the state of a material should be described by state variables, such as temperature and volume. But in solids, the same temperature and volume can correspond to different material properties depending on the material’s past treatment.

For this reason, hysteresis has traditionally been treated as a nonequilibrium phenomenon, outside the standard framework of thermodynamics.

Scientists generate electricity from ambient moisture using everyday ingredients

In a study published in Nano Energy, researchers from Queen Mary, the University of Warwick, Imperial College London, and Universitas Mercatorum report a highly stable, biodegradable Moisture-Electric Generator (MEG). The device is fabricated from food-grade materials including gelatin, sodium chloride (table salt), and activated carbon, and harnesses humidity—typically a major challenge for electronics—as its energy source.

This approach represents a significant shift in electronic design, transforming atmospheric moisture from a limitation into a functional energy input.

The “impossible” LED that could change everything

Scientists at the University of Cambridge have achieved what was once considered impossible by electrically powering insulating nanoparticles to create a completely new kind of LED. Using tiny organic “molecular antennas,” the team found a way to funnel energy into materials that normally cannot conduct electricity, producing ultra pure near infrared light with remarkable efficiency.

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