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Solving a difficult physics problem can be surprisingly similar to assembling an interlocking mechanical puzzle. In both cases, the particles or pieces look alike, but can be arranged into a beautiful structure that relies on the precise position of each component (Fig. 1). In 1983, the physicist Robert Laughlin made a puzzle-solving breakthrough by explaining the structure formed by interacting electrons in a device known as a Hall bar1. Although the strange behaviour of these electrons still fascinates physicists, it is not possible to simulate such a system or accurately measure the particles’ ultrashort time and length scales. Writing in Nature, Clark et al.2 report the creation of a non-electronic Laughlin state made of composite matter–light particles called polaritons, which are easier to track and manipulate than are electrons.

To picture a Laughlin state, consider a Hall bar, in which such states are usually observed (Fig. 2a). In these devices, electrons that are free to move in a two-dimensional plane are subjected to a strong magnetic field perpendicular to the plane. In classical physics, an electron at any position will start moving along a circular trajectory known as a cyclotron orbit, the radius of which depends on the particle’s kinetic energy. In quantum mechanics, the electron’s position will still be free, but its orbital radius — and, therefore, its kinetic energy — can be increased or decreased only in discrete steps. This feature leads to large sets of equal-energy (energy-degenerate) states called Landau levels. Non-interacting electrons added to the lowest-energy Landau level can be distributed between the level’s energy-degenerate states in many different ways.

Adding repulsive interactions between the electrons constrains the particles’ distribution over the states of the lowest Landau level, favouring configurations in which any two electrons have zero probability of being at the same spot. The states described by Laughlin have exactly this property and explain the main features of the fractional quantum Hall effect, whereby electrons in a strong magnetic field act together to behave like particles that have fractional electric charge. This work earned Laughlin a share of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physics. Laughlin states are truly many-body states that cannot be described by typical approximations, such as the mean-field approximation. Instead, the state of each particle depends on the precise state of all the others, just as in an interlocking puzzle.

Graphene, a two-dimensional honeycomb structure made of carbon atoms with a thickness of only one atom, has numerous outstanding properties. These include enormous mechanical resistance and extraordinary electronic and optical properties. Last year a team led by the Empa researcher Roman Fasel was able to show that it can even be magnetic: they succeeded in synthesizing a molecule in the shape of a bowtie, which has special magnetic properties.

Now, researchers report another breakthrough. Theoretical work from 2007 predicted that graphene could exhibit if it were cut into tiny triangles. Over the last three years, several teams, including the Empa team, have succeeded in producing the so-called triangulenes, consisting of only a few dozen , by chemical synthesis under ultra-high vacuum.

A team of researchers based in Manchester, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland and the U.S. has published a new review on a field of computer device development known as spintronics, which could see graphene used as building block for next-generation electronics.

Recent theoretical and experimental advances and phenomena in studies of electronic spin transport in and related two-dimensional (2-D) materials have emerged as a fascinating area of research and development.

Spintronics is the combination of electronics and magnetism, at the nanoscale and could lead to next generation high-speed electronics. Spintronic devices are a viable alternative for nanoelectronics beyond Moore’s law, offering higher energy efficiency and lower dissipation as compared to conventional electronics, which relies on charge currents. In principle we could have phones and tablets operating with spin-based transistors and memories.

Quantum engineers from UNSW Sydney have created artificial atoms in silicon chips that offer improved stability for quantum computing, according to a news release.

In a paper published today in Nature Communications, UNSW researchers describe how they created artificial atoms in a silicon ‘quantum dot’, a tiny space in a quantum circuit where electrons are used as qubits (or quantum bits), the basic units of quantum information.

Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak explains that unlike a real atom, an artificial atom has no nucleus, but it still has shells of electrons whizzing around the centre of the device, rather than around the atom’s nucleus.

Circa 2015


Fusion power can seem a bit like the last bus at night; it’s always coming, but never arrives. MIT is working to change that with a new compact tokamak fusion reactor design based on the latest commercially available magnetic superconductor technology. The ARC (affordable, robust, compact) reactor design promises smaller, cheaper reactors that could make fusion power practical within 10 years.

A commercially viable fusion reactor has been the Holy Grail of engineering since the 1950s, with the potential to turn almost all other major electricity sources into an historical footnote overnight. If perfected, it would essentially be an inexhaustible source of power, impacting on almost every aspect of life, from the environment to global politics. The trick is making it practical.

Put simply, fusion involves placing hydrogen atoms under very high heat and pressure until they fuse into helium atoms, which releases tremendous amounts of energy. The Sun does this as a matter of course, but reproducing those conditions on Earth outside of a hydrogen bomb has proven difficult.

An international team of researchers has discovered the hydrogen atoms in a metal hydride material are much more tightly spaced than had been predicted for decades — a feature that could possibly facilitate superconductivity at or near room temperature and pressure.

Such a superconducting material, carrying electricity without any energy loss due to resistance, would revolutionize energy efficiency in a broad range of consumer and industrial applications.

The scientists conducted neutron scattering experiments at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory on samples of zirconium vanadium hydride at atmospheric pressure and at temperatures from −450 degrees Fahrenheit (5 K) to as high as −10 degrees Fahrenheit (250 K) — much higher than the temperatures where superconductivity is expected to occur in these conditions.

New machine learning methods bring insights into how lithium ion batteries degrade, and show it’s more complicated than many thought.

Lithium-ion batteries lose their juice over time, causing scientists and engineers to work hard to understand that process in detail. Now, scientists at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have combined sophisticated machine learning algorithms with X-ray tomography data to produce a detailed picture of how one battery component, the cathode, degrades with use.

The new study, published this month in Nature Communications, focused on how to better visualize what’s going on in cathodes made of nickel-manganese-cobalt, or NMC. In these cathodes, NMC particles are held together by a conductive carbon matrix, and researchers have speculated that one cause of performance decline could be particles breaking away from that matrix. The team’s goal was to combine cutting-edge capabilities at SLAC’s Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) to develop a comprehensive picture of how NMC particles break apart and break away from the matrix and how that might contribute to performance losses.