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IMAGE: In Physics of Fluids, Marche Polytechnic University researchers describe using a supercomputer to do numerical modeling of cough droplets irradiated by UV-C light: The red zone (from your chest down). view more
Credit: V. D Alessandro, M. Falone, L. Giammichele, and R. Ricci
WASHINGTON, March 9, 2021 One of the primary ways the COVID-19 virus is transmitted is via airborne diffusion of saliva microdroplets, so it is paramount to find methods to kill the virus in airborne microdroplets.
The extreme confusion that abounded at the beginning of the pandemic about safe social distances, mask wearing, and social behavior inspired Marche Polytechnic University researchers, who happen to be intrigued by saliva droplet diffusion, to search for answers and ways to help.
Credit: Timur Sabirov/Skoltech
Researchers at Skoltech and their colleagues proposed a photonic device from two optical resonators with liquid crystals inside them to study optical properties of this system that can be useful for future generations of optoelectronic and spinoptronic devices. The paper was published in the journal
Physical Review B.
The simplest kind of optical resonator consists of two mirrors directly opposite each other, squeezing light between them. When you stand inside a mirror resonator, you see infinite copies of yourself in the mirrors; when a liquid crystal - the kind in your computer and smartphone screen - is placed into a much smaller and a bit more complex resonator, interesting things tend to happen. Since the orientation of the liquid crystal molecules can be changed by applying an electric current, researchers were able to control various characteristics of light propagation inside the resonator and, in some sense, simulate the operation of elec
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IMAGE: Comparison between conventional HDD write head and newly proposed flux control HDD write head. In the flux control HDD write head, the magnetization of the FC device is reversed against. view more
Credit: Hirofumi Suto
WASHINGTON, March 9, 2021 Researchers at Toshiba Corporation in Japan have studied the operation of a small device fabricated in the write gap of a hard disk drive s write head to extend its recording density. The device, developed by HWY Technologies, is based on a design concept known as microwave-assisted magnetic recording, or MAMR.
This technology, reported in the
Journal of Applied Physics, by AIP Publishing, uses a microwave field generator known as a spin-torque oscillator. The spin-torque oscillator emits a microwave field causing the magnetic particles of the recording medium to wobble the way a spinning top does. This makes them much easier to flip over when the write head applies a recording magnetic field in the writing
Credit: TU Wien
For decades, there has been a trend in microelectronics towards ever smaller and more compact transistors. 2D materials such as graphene are seen as a beacon of hope here: they are the thinnest material layers that can possibly exist, consisting of only one or a few atomic layers. Nevertheless, they can conduct electrical currents - conventional silicon technology, on the other hand, no longer works properly if the layers become too thin.
However, such materials are not used in a vacuum; they have to be combined with suitable insulators - in order to seal them off from unwanted environmental influences, and also in order to control the flow of current via the so-called field effect. Until now, hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) has frequently been used for this purpose as it forms an excellent environment for 2D materials. However, studies conducted by TU Wien, in cooperation with ETH Zurich, the Russian Ioffe Institute and researchers from Saudi Arabia and Japan, now sh