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IMAGE: Schematic illustration of how light affects the nucleation (birth) of dislocations (slippages of crystal planes) and dislocation motion, when the sample is also placed under mechanical loading. The Nagoya University/Technical. view more
Credit: Atsutomo Nakamura
Semiconductor materials play an indispensable role in our modern information-oriented society. For reliable performance of semiconductor devices, these materials need to have superior mechanical properties: they must be strong as well as resistant to fracture, despite being rich in nanoscale structures.
Recently, it has become increasingly clear that the optical environment affects the structural strength of semiconductor materials. The effect can be much more significant than expected, especially in light-sensitive semiconductors, and particularly since due to technological constraints or fabrication cost many semiconductors can only be mass-produced in very small and thin sizes. Moreover, labora
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Michael McDermott, Assistant Professor, School of Art, received $25,000 from the Virginia Research Investment Fund for a project in which he will use images, text, and audio files recovered from old cellular phones to create an exhibit that will be shown at Mason s Gillespie Gallery of Art. The specific pieces will be determined by what was recoverable from each phone, but the data from one phone will not be combined with the data from another. The files and fragments from one phone will serve as a portrait of the previous owner or owners, while making sure their actual identity is protected.
Credit: Yokohama National University
Researchers in Japan have developed the first wearable devices to precisely monitor jaundice, a yellowing of the skin caused by elevated bilirubin levels in the blood that can cause severe medical conditions in newborns. Jaundice can be treated easily by irradiating the infant with blue light that breaks bilirubin down to be excreted through urine. The treatment itself, however, can disrupt bonding time, cause dehydration and increase the risks of allergic diseases. Neonatal jaundice is one of the leading causes of death and brain damage in infants in low- and middle-income countries.
To address the tricky balance of administering the precise amount of blue light needed to counteract the exact levels of bilirubin, researchers have developed the first wearable sensor for newborns that is capable of continuously measuring bilirubin. In addition to bilirubin detection, the device can simultaneously detect pulse rate and blood oxygen saturation in
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IMAGE: Satellite imagery of the Amery Ice Shelf in East Antarctica. The blue lines represent the movement of the ice as it flows from the continent to the edge of the. view more
Credit: Shujie Wang, Penn State
When a block of ice the size of Houston, Texas, broke off from East Antarctica s Amery Ice Shelf in 2019, scientists had anticipated the calving event, but not exactly where it would happen. Now, satellite data can help scientists measure the depth and shape of ice shelf fractures to better predict when and where calving events will occur, according to researchers.
Ice shelves make up nearly 75% of Antarctica s coastline and buttress or hold back the larger glaciers on land, said Shujie Wang, assistant professor of geography at Penn State. If the ice shelves were to collapse and Antarctica s glaciers fell or melted into the ocean, sea levels would rise by up to 200 feet.
Credit: Lucas Schweickert
In a potential boost for quantum computing and communication, a European research collaboration reported a new method of controlling and manipulating single photons without generating heat. The solution makes it possible to integrate optical switches and single-photon detectors in a single chip.
Publishing in
Nature Communications, the team reported to have developed an optical switch that is reconfigured with microscopic mechanical movement rather than heat, making the switch compatible with heat-sensitive single-photon detectors.
Optical switches in use today work by locally heating light guides inside a semiconductor chip. This approach does not work for quantum optics, says co-author Samuel Gyger, a PhD student at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.