Caltech scientists have developed a new way to produce optical frequency combs—important tools in devices that keep time and measure distances very precisely—at the chip scale, an advance that should make it easier to incorporate such combs in optical devices and more practical to use them outside the laboratory.

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For decades, it has been widely believed that electrons move most efficiently in materials that are clean and highly ordered. Much like water flowing more easily through a smooth pipe, conventional wisdom has held that electrical transport improves as a material’s internal structure becomes more perfectly arranged. However, a recent study shows that the opposite […]

A team of scientists led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory has identified a rare, switchable quantum property in a new type of nickel sulfide material. The discovery could have applications in high-speed transistors, adaptive sensors and other devices that require a material’s electronic structure to be controlled on the fly. […]

Scientists have created the first microlasers capable of detecting individual molecules and even single atomic ions, a breakthrough that could significantly advance early disease diagnosis and molecular-scale medical testing. Researchers at the University of Exeter’s Living Systems Institute have published their work in Nature Photonics. The paper opens up new possibilities for microlaser biosensing technology, […]

A fascination with fish gills has led researchers at Cornell to develop a bio-inspired approach to mixing heat and molecules in fluids—findings that could inform future biomedical devices, heat exchangers and soft robotics.

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Superconductors are materials that conduct electricity with an electrical resistance of zero. Superconductivity is generally observed when materials are cooled down to extremely low temperatures. In some cases, however, like in so-called high-temperature superconductors, this property emerges at higher temperatures.

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Gallium nitride, a semiconductor that can operate at high voltages, temperatures, and frequencies, has enabled technologies from LED lighting to high-power electronics. Now Cornell researchers have observed a quantum property of the material for the first time, an advance that could expand its technological reach.

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The performance of quantum computers could cap out after around 1,000 qubits, according to a new analysis published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Through new calculations, Tim Palmer at the University of Oxford has reconsidered the mathematical foundations underlying the quantum principles behind the technology, concluding that restrictions on the information-carrying […]