electrons

Electrons zip around in electronic devices extremely quickly, which can make it hard to see what’s going on in there. Now, engineers at the Universities of Michigan and Regensburg have developed an “attoclock” that can take snapshots of electrons in increments as small as quintillionths of a second.For current computers, clock speeds are measured in nanoseconds, which are a billionth of a second. And while that’s fast enough for what we use them for today, quantum computers have the potential to drastically speed things…

A team of scientists has announced a surprising discovery - that they were able to create matter out of nothing. The experiment was carried out in January 2022, in which strong electric fields were created in a simple laboratory leveraging the unique properties of grapheme, which enabled the creation of particle-antiparticle pair from nothing at all, according to a report in Big Think. However, it is to be noted that according to laws of physics, there is no truly empty space. Even in the absence of particles, there are…

If humans are ever able to safely make their descent on Mars, there is now a possibility for them to get plenty of oxygen to breathe on the Red Planet. This can be possible due to a new plasma-based method developed by scientists, through which the resources available in the Martian environment can be utilised to make oxygen. The method would not only allow astronauts to breathe on the planet during future Mars missions, but could also help make fuel, building materials, and fertilisers there.Mars' atmosphere mainly…

If chemists built cars, they'd fill a factory with car parts, set it on fire, and sift from the ashes pieces that now looked vaguely car-like. When you're dealing with car-parts the size of atoms, this is a perfectly reasonable process. Yet chemists yearn for ways to reduce the waste and make reactions far more precise.  Chemical engineering has taken a step forward, with researchers from the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, the University of Regensburg in Germany, and IBM Research Europe forcing a single…

In a landmark discovery, researchers have rearranged atomic bonds in a single molecule for the first time. Chemical engineers from the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, the University of Regensburg in Germany, and IBM Research Europe collectively began their experiment with a substance called 5,6,11,12-tetrachlorotetracene (with the formula C18H8Cl4). It is a carbon-based molecule that has a row of four honeycomb-shaped cells with four chlorine atoms on each side, hovering like hungry bees.The researchers…

For the first time, physicists have witnessed something incredibly exciting: electrons forming whirlpools just like a fluid.This behavior is one that scientists have long predicted, but never observed before. And it could be the key to developing more efficient and faster next-generation electronics.  "Electron vortices are expected in theory, but there's been no direct proof, and seeing is believing," says one of the researchers behind the new study, physicist Leonid Levitov from MIT. "Now we've seen it, and it's a…

Back in the day, computers made noises. We don’t mean played music or sound effects, but made actual commotion from within. It was mostly the heads on the hard drives moving around, or the squealing of a modem, but it was comforting because you knew something was happening. Today, you’re lucky if you hear a fan whirring.  But a paper in the journal Nature Electronics (opens in new tab) (summarized by Interesting Engineering (opens in new tab)) describes the use of acoustic waves to carry out the same kind of tasks as…

Because seeds may contain yield-reducing fungi, bacteria or viruses, they're often chemically treated before they're sold to farmers. A new mobile system, however, substitutes microbe-killing electrons for harsh and eco-unfriendly chemicals.The problem with existing chemical treatments lies in the fact that the fungicides and antibacterial compounds deposited onto the seeds may be harmful both to farmers, and to the environment in which the seeds are planted.As far back as the 1980s, scientists began looking into using…

Resonant inelastic X-ray scattering reveals high-energy nematic spin correlations in the nematic state of the iron-based superconductor, FeSe. Credit: Beijing Normal University/Qi Tang and Xingye LuElectronic nematicity, thought to be an ingredient in high-temperature superconductivity, is primarily spin driven in FeSe finds a study in Nature Physics.Researchers from PSI’s Spectroscopy of Quantum Materials group together with scientists from Beijing Normal University have solved a puzzle at the forefront of research into…

A particle accelerator that slams electrons together here on Earth has achieved temperatures colder than those of outer space.Using the X-ray free-electron laser at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory  –  part of an upgrade project to the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), called LCLS II  – scientists chilled liquid helium to minus 456 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 271 degrees Celsius), or 2 kelvins.  That is just 2 kelvins above absolute zero, the coldest possible temperature at which all…