A four-stroke engine for atoms

If you switch a bit in the memory of a computer and then switch it back again, you have restored the original state. There are only two states that can be called "0 and 1."

Thermoelectrics: From heat to electricity

A lot of heat gets lost during the conversion of energy. Estimates even put it at more than 70%. However, in thermoelectric materials, such as those being studied at the Institute of Solid State Physics at TU Wien, heat can ...

Climate protection: CO2 turned into methanol

For reasons of climate protection, carbon dioxide must not be released into the atmosphere. Wherever the formation of carbon dioxide cannot be prevented, it should be captured and converted into other substances.

Light instead of electricity: A new kind of 'green hydrogen'

Hydrogen could be an important part of our future energy supply: It can be stored, transported and burned as needed. However, most of the hydrogen available today is a by-product of natural gas production, and this has to ...

One particle on two paths: Quantum physics is right

The double-slit experiment is the most famous and probably the most important experiment in quantum physics: individual particles are shot at a wall with two openings, behind which a detector measures where the particles ...

Microscaffolds: A new strategy in tissue engineering

Until now, there have been two completely different approaches to producing artificial tissue. At TU Wien, a third approach has now been developed that combines the advantages of both.

Exploring monoatomic platinum catalysts

What happens when a cat climbs onto a sunflower? The sunflower is unstable, will quickly bend, and the cat will fall to the ground. However, if the cat only needs a quick boost to catch a bird from there, then the sunflower ...

Quantum physics sets a speed limit to electronics

How fast can electronics be? When computer chips work with ever shorter signals and time intervals, at some point they come up against physical limits. The quantum-mechanical processes that enable the generation of electric ...

Topology can play a crucial role in the generation of laser light

A donut is not a bun. From a mathematical point of view, they are two fundamentally different objects: The donut has a hole, the bun does not. A circle inside the donut around its hole in the center cannot be shrunk to a ...

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