Since the discovery of graphene more than 15 years ago, researchers have been in a global race to unlock its unique properties. Not only is graphene—a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon arranged in a hexagonal lattice—the ...
Nanomaterials
Oct 12, 2020
1
6703
Water molecules undergo ultrafast dithering motions at room temperature and generate extremely strong electric fields in their environment. New experiments demonstrate how in presence of such fields free electrons are generated ...
Materials Science
Sep 2, 2020
0
8
When Jocelyn Bell first observed the emissions of a pulsar in 1967, the rhythmic pulses of radio waves so confounded astronomers that they considered whether the light could be signals sent by an alien civilization.
General Physics
Jun 15, 2020
12
611
Controlling the interactions between light and matter has been a long-standing ambition for scientists seeking to develop and advance numerous technologies that are fundamental to society. With the boom of nanotechnology ...
Nanophysics
Oct 9, 2019
0
251
When a raindrop falls through a thundercloud, it is subject to strong electric fields that pull and tug on the droplet, like a soap bubble in the wind. If the electric field is strong enough, it can cause the droplet to burst ...
General Physics
Jun 17, 2019
2
799
A team of researchers at the University of Chicago has developed a circuit platform for the exploration of quantum matter made of strongly interacting microwave photons. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the ...
The remarkable strength of ionic crystals is easily explained at the atomic scale: Positively and negatively charged atoms sit side by side in a repeating periodic arrangement. The strong electrostatic force in between keeps ...
Materials Science
Feb 2, 2018
0
59
Sometimes things that are technically defects, such as imperfections in a material's crystal lattice, can actually produce changes in properties that open up new kinds of useful applications. New research from a team at MIT ...
Condensed Matter
Sep 21, 2017
0
10
Dramatic advances in laser technologies are enabling novel studies to explore laser-matter interactions at ultrahigh intensity. By focusing high-power laser pulses, electric fields (of orders of magnitude greater than found ...
Plasma Physics
Sep 27, 2016
2
1305
On Jan. 18, 2016, the GRIPS balloon team sent their instrument soaring towards the stratosphere above Antarctica, suspended underneath a helium-filled, football-field sized scientific balloon. GRIPS, short for Gamma-Ray Imager/Polarimeter ...
Space Exploration
Jan 19, 2016
0
22
