electrons Archives

Building acoustic computers with tuneable phononic crystals

Written by

Dr Banerjee and colleagues have developed a deaf band-based model to use in building acoustic computers, using tuneable phononic crystals.

For more than two decades, physicists have been investigating wave propagation in phononic crystals, a metamaterial designed to control sound waves. A recent consideration involves using phononic crystals in acoustic computing. Acoustic computers execute basic Boolean algebra computations using acoustic waves. Dirac cones make this possible but achieving them is both very difficult and rare. Professor Sourav Banerjee and his […]

Retrocausality: How backwards-in-time effects could explain quantum weirdness

Written by

Dr Rod Sutherland has developed a model of retrocausality, which might pave the way for solving long-standing mysteries in physics.

Since the earliest days of quantum theory, physicists have struggled to reconcile the apparently nonlocal, faster-than-light interactions demanded by quantum mechanics with the strict laws of relativity. Dr Rod Sutherland at the University of Sydney, Australia, believes that the answer to this problem lies with ‘retrocausality’ – a concept which would allow quantum measurements to influence events in their past. […]

Making organic chemistry fun, meaningful, and accessible

Written by

Using relevant day-to-day examples and applications, Dr Irosha Nawarathne aims to make organic chemistry meaningful and accessible.

Many undergraduate students perceive organic chemistry modules as make-or-break courses in their university career. They often resort to rote memorisation, which not only alienates them but prevents them understanding the discipline in depth. Social and economic factors may also be significant barriers in the study of this fundamental subject. With examples drawn from her extensive teaching experience, Dr Irosha N […]

Electron paramagnetic resonance: EPR everywhere

Written by

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) measures the signal from unpaired electrons and is a technique already widely used in the bioscience and pharmaceutical industries. Dr Joshua R. Biller of TDA Research, Inc, USA is championing the novel use of EPR to answer research questions. He explains that rapid innovations in EPR will allow a wider group of researchers to image tumours, […]

Highly efficient modelling of electronic structure

Written by

Chemistry can be defined as the study of electron motion in the field of nuclei, which obeys the rules of quantum dynamics. The electronic structure of a given system of N electrons is best described by an N-electron wave function built up with one-electron wave functions (orbitals) subject to the antisymmetry principle. The major issue is that the orbitals may […]

Unravelling the Mysteries of Deep-Blue Luminescence

Written by

Some molecules glow as brilliantly as fireflies through a process known as luminescence. Different molecules can emit different colours of light, including red, green, and blue. However, not all colours are as easy to generate as others. Dr Masahito Oh-e at National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan, together with his collaborator Dr Akira Nagasawa, Professor Emeritus of Saitama University in Japan, […]

Free Electron Lasers: The Biggest and Brightest Light Sources

Written by

SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source X-ray laser can be used to stimulate and measure the electron-transfer process.

Creating focused, well-behaved beams of electrons is no easy task, but something that Dr Sergio Carbajo and his team at Stanford University and the SLAC National Accelerator laboratory are experts in. They are developing new technologies to control electron generation for some of the world’s biggest and brightest lasers to make it possible to film exactly what happens in the […]

New insights into the strong interaction with strange exotic atoms

Written by

The strong interaction plays a fundamental role in our universe. The difficulty of performing precision measurements has limited our understanding of this interaction. Dr Catalina Curceanu at the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) in Frascati-Rome is leading ambitious new efforts to study and measure the strong interaction in her lab. Her team’s work is centred around an intriguing form […]

Building waveguides for everyday photonic circuits

Written by

From mobile phones to computers, the devices we use every day are almost universal in their use of electricity for transmitting information through their circuits. However, Dr Richard Hildner at the University of Groningen believes that the capabilities of many modern technologies could improve if they were combined with circuits which operate using light. His team’s work has now brought […]