https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Semiconductors with wider bandgaps could pave the way for smaller, more efficient electronics that can handle far higher voltages, but the wider this gap becomes, the harder it is to control how well a material conducts electricity. Now, a team led by Darrell Schlom at Cornell University has shown that adding silicon to thin films of aluminum gallium oxide can keep this control intact at bandgaps wider than any semiconductor before it. Their research has been published in Nature. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-sapphire-grown-semiconductor-bandgap.html Condensed Matter Thu, 22 Oct 2026 07:00:04 EDT news711713518 NASA researchers are developing the future of flight on Mars, laying the groundwork for helicopters with the ability to fly higher and farther while conducting science on the Red Planet. Using high-fidelity computer simulations and wind tunnel tests, engineers are reimagining the rotorcraft blades that could carry the next generation of Mars flyers. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-nasa-experimental-mars-helicopter-blade.html Space Exploration Tue, 20 Oct 2026 13:50:01 EDT news711720660 It looks like a small, transparent patch with a rainbow on its surface—or for those old enough to remember, the back of a CD. The patch is the first of its kind in the world and, when combined with an ordinary smartphone camera, can measure two things: pulse and blood vessel stiffness. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-octopus-patch-skin-reveals-pulse.html Bio & Medicine Tue, 20 Oct 2026 10:00:16 EDT news711705901 Today's computer technology, based on silicon chips, is slowly reaching its physical limits. Components cannot be miniaturized indefinitely, and clock speeds cannot be increased indefinitely. At the same time, huge AI data centers are being built in many places, and these consume an immense amount of electricity. This is why scientists around the world are searching for novel materials that can replace or complement silicon technology and consume significantly less electricity. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-rays-reveal-copper-oxide.html Condensed Matter Mon, 19 Oct 2026 11:40:06 EDT news711621013 Researchers have developed and demonstrated a new hybrid photonic platform that integrates quantum emitters with photonic devices, providing a way to reliably control the interaction between photons and quantum information carriers. The chip-based platform, which combines gallium phosphide (GaP) with a diamond substrate, could help make quantum networks more practical by providing a way to connect quantum devices over long distances. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-hybrid-diamond-chip-interactions-quantum.html Optics & Photonics Sun, 18 Oct 2026 09:00:05 EDT news711300067 Silicon spin qubits are a promising platform for building scalable quantum computers as they are compatible with the semiconductor manufacturing technologies used to produce today's computer chips. However, they have an important weakness: silicon spin qubits typically lose accuracy when several qubits are under parallel control. To be useful, quantum computers will need to operate many qubits simultaneously without compromising the accuracy of their operations. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-silicon-qubits-surpass-gate-fidelity.html Quantum Physics Thu, 15 Oct 2026 17:20:05 EDT news711293821 A transistor normally requires several fundamentally different materials—a semiconductor to carry current, an insulating dielectric to control it and metallic contacts through which current enters and leaves. Integrating all of these components becomes increasingly difficult as semiconductor devices approach the atomic scale. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-2d-crystal-transistor-built-insulation.html Nanophysics Thu, 15 Oct 2026 16:40:06 EDT news711293041 When light hits a tiny defect embedded in a solid material like diamond or silicon carbide, it can kick the defect's electrons into an excited state. These spin defects have the potential to be used as stable, readable qubits for quantum technologies, for example, quantum sensing. But modeling the full physics of their energetics over time—a key step in developing spin defects into new technologies—is a challenging task. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-quantum-reveal-defects-energy.html Condensed Matter Thu, 15 Oct 2026 11:40:09 EDT news711280201 If you've ever had your car start sluggishly, or not at all, on a particularly frigid winter morning, you know standard batteries do not like extreme cold. That's why NASA researchers are working to develop a battery that could function in the brutal cold of the moon's south pole, where nighttime temperatures plunge to minus 328 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 200 degrees Celsius). https://phys.org/news/2026-10-nasa-batteries-power-humanity-moon.html Space Exploration Wed, 14 Oct 2026 19:40:02 EDT news711213681 Researchers have developed a chip-scale optical ring-laser gyroscope that can measure rotation as slow as 37 degrees per hour. This record sensitivity, approaching Earth's rotation rate of 15 degrees per hour, could eventually be useful for precision navigation and orientation systems, particularly where GPS is unavailable. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-chip-scale-gyroscope-rotation-unprecedented.html General Physics Wed, 14 Oct 2026 19:00:10 EDT news711213061 Tiny, shapeless invaders can find their way from ponds to the human brain and cause an infection so severe that it has a 95% fatality rate. The amoeba Naegleria fowleri naturally lives in ponds, feasting on bacteria, but once it enters the human body, it makes a run for the brain tissue, traversing complex, tight spaces to reach its destination. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-harmless-amoeba-tight-space-clues.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 08 Oct 2026 10:40:11 EDT news710672403 Creating a quantum device often begins by intentionally damaging a crystal. Scientists fire an ultrafast laser pulse into a material, knocking atoms out of place and leaving behind tiny imperfections called vacancies. Far from being flaws, these vacancies can behave as qubits—the fundamental building blocks of quantum information. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ray-technique-reveals-quantum-materials.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 06 Oct 2026 17:20:08 EDT news710508661 A joint research team led by professors Seunghyun Baik and Joonmyung Choi from the School of Mechanical Engineering at Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) has developed a new nanocomposite material whose electrical and thermal conductivities increase as it is stretched. The team successfully applied it to stable heat dissipation for foldable phones. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-boosts-thermal-electrical-nanocomposite.html Nanophysics Tue, 06 Oct 2026 14:40:02 EDT news710503982 The bulk photovoltaic effect (BPVE), a photoelectric effect that generates photocurrent without a p–n junction, can persist even when a material's average crystal structure remains centrosymmetric, a study from Institute of Science Tokyo has found. Researchers demonstrated this in CuCrP2S6, a van der Waals material that transitions from a noncentrosymmetric to a centrosymmetric average structure. The finding challenges the conventional view of BPVE and suggests a new strategy for enhancing photoelectric conversion. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-atomic-motion-solar-cells-conventional.html Condensed Matter Mon, 05 Oct 2026 16:20:16 EDT news710425741 Astronomers have discovered the first example of a second-generation planet orbiting a white dwarf, a world that appears to have formed from the remains of the dead star it now orbits. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-phoenix-planet-astronomers-world-reborn.html Astronomy Mon, 05 Oct 2026 11:00:15 EDT news710162342 Research led by a group from the University of Newcastle has found a new way to make silicone surfaces—and control how slippery they are. The work was published in the journal Chemistry of Materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-smart-silicone-coatings-friction-stickiness.html Nanomaterials Fri, 02 Oct 2026 13:40:13 EDT news710156282 Researchers at Tohoku University, in collaboration with the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) and the University of Tokyo, have taken an important step toward semiconductor quantum computing using zinc oxide (ZnO). https://phys.org/news/2026-09-zinc-oxide-quantum-dots-enable.html Condensed Matter Wed, 30 Sep 2026 13:20:11 EDT news709981741 A new technique for controlling optical components with light could help usher in a generation of high-efficiency signal-processing technology that could drive futuristic applications such as holographic video. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-dyed-liquid-crystals-enable-optical.html Nanophysics Tue, 29 Sep 2026 17:20:16 EDT news709915321 A tiny device that can be reprogrammed using a laser could lead to adaptable devices for computing, imaging and telecommunications. Most devices are built to perform a particular job. If you want them to do something different, you generally need to replace a component, rewire the system or manufacture a new one. For example, every time you ask a large language model like ChatGPT or Claude a question, many electrical signals race through computer chips, carrying information and performing calculations. This takes energy, and lots of it. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-laser-temporarily-reprograms-ultrathin-optical.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 28 Sep 2026 13:00:13 EDT news709812601 When a spacecraft reenters Earth's atmosphere at hypersonic velocities, its protective heat shield faces extreme conditions, including temperatures beyond 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,650 degrees Celsius). To survive, the shield relies on specialized materials that absorb heat as they degrade in a controlled process called ablation, sacrificing the shield's outer layers to protect the vehicle and crew within. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-real-spacecraft-shields-extreme-conditions.html Space Exploration Sat, 26 Sep 2026 12:00:01 EDT news709471452 Quantum photonics could be a pivotal part of future quantum technology if the right materials can be created, a new review paper has found. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-ultrathin-materials-quantum-circuits-programmable.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 25 Sep 2026 15:40:01 EDT news709554121 Quantum materials do things ordinary materials cannot. They carry current without any loss, or conduct only along their outer edge while the inside insulates. Future quantum computers and quantum sensors will run on materials like these. To improve them, researchers need to see exactly where currents and magnetic fields run at the nanoscale. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-vertical-quantum-sensor-reveal-nanoscale.html Superconductivity Thu, 24 Sep 2026 15:20:06 EDT news709464484 When the universe was still in its infancy—only 500 million years after the Big Bang, or about 3% of its current age—some of the universe's earliest stars and galaxies had already formed. Astronomers have long predicted that much of the gas surrounding these young galaxies must have remained relatively pristine, composed mostly of hydrogen and helium, the primordial ingredients available in the newborn cosmos. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-jwst-early-galaxies-seeding-universe.html Astrobiology Thu, 24 Sep 2026 05:00:04 EDT news709373161 Switching to modern silicon solar cells could cut the cost of powering satellites by as much as 90% based on beginning-of-life (BOL) performance, according to a review led by the University of Surrey. The switch to silicon cells could also halve the weight of the solar cells needed on a spacecraft, freeing mass for fuel or instruments or cutting launch costs. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-silicon-solar-cells-satellite-power.html Space Exploration Wed, 23 Sep 2026 10:00:01 EDT news709372404 A type of transformation best known for hardening steel and enabling shape-memory alloys may also occur in a much softer class of materials, according to new research from Rice University. Researchers in the departments of chemistry and chemical and biomolecular engineering and at the Smalley-Curl Institute at Rice have shown that an organic semiconductor can transform from a liquid crystal into a solid crystal through a rapid, highly coordinated process resembling a martensitic transformation—a phenomenon traditionally associated with changes between two solid crystalline structures. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-liquid-crystal-page-steel-phase.html Analytical Chemistry Tue, 22 Sep 2026 10:00:07 EDT news709288082 Researchers in China have extended the lifetime of entanglement in a room-temperature, solid-state system by up to a factor of 240. Led by Shuo Ren and Rui-Jian Liang at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, the team transferred entangled states from the electron spins of solid-state defects to the spins of surrounding atomic nuclei, which are far more resilient to noise. The research has been published in Physical Review Letters. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-nuclear-swap-room-temperature-entanglement.html Quantum Physics Mon, 21 Sep 2026 12:40:08 EDT news709210398 Photonic integrated circuits route information with optical signals instead of relying only on electrical currents. Silicon (Si) and silicon nitride (SiNx) are excellent photonic platforms for waveguides, but they cannot efficiently perform the ever-increasing tasks required for fully integrated optical systems. A heterogeneous photonic integration platform capable of interfacing different optical materials with high performance is thus an ongoing challenge for both academia and industry. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-photonic-legos-functional-3d-thin.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 21 Sep 2026 06:40:01 EDT news708945868 The electronic properties of materials are typically determined by their structure under normal, undisturbed conditions, when they are in a state known as equilibrium. Intense light beams, however, can temporarily reshape a material's electronic band structure (i.e., the range of energy states available to electrons), potentially giving rise to new electronic behaviors. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-electrons-graphene-transient-topological-state.html Condensed Matter Sat, 19 Sep 2026 15:20:01 EDT news708945827 Researchers have engineered a new material that is an extreme thermal insulator, is exceptionally stiff and can be printed as a thin film at large scales. The material has one of the lowest thermal conductivity profiles of any dense, or nonporous, material—approaching the theoretical limit of how good a material can be as a thermal insulator. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-thermal-insulator-outperforms-material-nature.html Nanophysics Fri, 18 Sep 2026 14:00:06 EDT news708832946 Beauty and mystery—it is hard to imagine a more alluring combination, and this is precisely what we encounter when we observe phenomena in the nanoworld. But are we really sure that observations made using modern microscopic techniques do not influence what is happening there? A comparison of images of copper oxide nanoparticles reacting with chloroauric acid, obtained using electron and photon beams, has yielded unexpected results. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-electron-photon-gold-reaction-nanoscale.html Nanophysics Thu, 17 Sep 2026 17:30:01 EDT news708882841