An international team of scientists has discovered a new, exotic form of insulating material with a metallic surface that could enable more efficient electronics or even quantum computing. The researchers developed a new method for analyzing existing chemical compounds that relies on the mathematical properties like symmetry that govern the repeating patterns seen in everyday wallpaper. (more…)
As smartphones get smarter and computers compute faster, researchers actively search for ways to speed up the processing of information. Now, scientists at Princeton University have made a step forward in developing a new class of materials that could be used in future technologies.
They have discovered a new quantum effect that enables electrons — the negative-charge-carrying particles that make today’s electronic devices possible — to dash through the interior of these materials with very little resistance. (more…)
Berkeley Lab scientists discover how a photon beam can flip the spin polarization of electrons emitted from an exciting new material
Plain-looking but inherently strange crystalline materials called 3D topological insulators (TIs) are all the rage in materials science. Even at room temperature, a single chunk of TI is a good insulator in the bulk, yet behaves like a metal on its surface.
Researchers find TIs exciting partly because the electrons that flow swiftly across their surfaces are “spin polarized”: the electron’s spin is locked to its momentum, perpendicular to the direction of travel. These interesting electronic states promise many uses – some exotic, like observing never-before-seen fundamental particles, but many practical, including building more versatile and efficient high-tech gadgets, or, further into the future, platforms for quantum computing. (more…)
Technique suggests an avenue for creating new kinds of superconductivity
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Physicists at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI), a collaboration of the University of Maryland and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), have for the first time caused a gas of atoms to exhibit an important quantum phenomenon known as spin-orbit coupling. Their technique opens new possibilities for studying and better understanding fundamental physics and has potential applications to quantum computing, next-generation “spintronics” devices and even “atomtronic” devices built from ultracold atoms. (more…)
