Twisting Atomically Thin Semiconductor Materials may Convert Light into Electricity
Written by AZoOpticsMay 3 2021
A pair of physicists at the University of California, Riverside, are aiming to convert light falling on atomically thin semiconductor materials into electricity, having received more than $582,000 in funding from the U.S. Department of the Army.
Nathaniel Gabor and Vivek Aji, both associate professors of physics and astronomy, will focus on how the fundamental science of light and its interaction with matter enables new sensing capabilities in layered and twisted vertical structures of stacked monolayer semiconductors. The researchers aim to understand how electronic excitations influence the flow of photo-absorbed energy in ultrasmall semiconducting optoelectronic materials.
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RALEIGH, N.C., May 5, 2021 /PRNewswire/ The Civil-Military Innovation Institute Inc. (CMI2), a nonprofit organization focused on integrating academia and commercial industry into the Defense Innovation Base, today announced the further expansion of its North Carolina footprint into Research Triangle Park (RTP). CMI2 officially began operations at its new office in Durham on May 1.
CMI2 supports United States (U.S.) Department of Defense (DoD) activities to build a civil-military innovation workforce that advances the development of cutting-edge national security technologies and aligns the work of innovators from universities and non-traditional technology companies with the activities of the USDOD and public safety communities.
From the “What could possibly go wrong?” file comes yet another report that the US military is working to create robotic warriors that move more like humans than one of those robotic New York police dogs trying to walk on two legs and carry a gun. The latest technique under trial is something called ‘biohybrid robotics’, which in this case means replacing rods, gears and shock absorbers with real human muscle tissue. Are you ready for robots with bigger biceps than yours … or Arnold’s?
“We look at a wolf in nature: It probably weighs about the same, can pull much more and can travel hundreds of miles without really eating, take a nap and do the same thing the next day.”
By J.P. LAWRENCE | STARS AND STRIPES Published: May 5, 2021 Medics can apply coagulants like QuikClot to wounds to stem blood loss long enough for a service member to get to a field hospital. But arterial wounds can be hard to treat in the field, said Robert Mantz, a chemistry branch chief with the Army Research Laboratory. Troops dying from blood loss to parts of the body where bandages or tourniquets can’t be applied has been a persistent problem during battles of the past two decades. The researchers say that StatBond, a clear, silicon-based gel, may help. “The thing that excites me about this is that we have data that shows this works on an arterial bleed, and to my knowledge, none of the other products out there can handle that,” Mantz said on the phone Tuesday.
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IMAGE: Ring microlasers are eyed as potential light sources for photonic applications, but they first must be made more powerful. Combining multiple microlasers into an array solves only half of the. view more
Credit: University of Pennsylvania
The field of photonics aims to transform all manner of electronic devices by storing and transmitting information in the form of light, rather than electricity. Beyond light s raw speed, the way that information can be layered in its various physical properties makes devices like photonic computers and communication systems tantalizing prospects.
Before such devices can go from theory to reality, however, engineers must find ways of making their light sources lasers smaller, stronger and more stable. Robots and autonomous vehicles that use LiDAR for optical sensing and ranging, manufacturing and material processing techniques that use lasers, and many other applications are also continually pushing the field of phot