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Researchers at the Center for Theoretical Physics of Complex Systems (PCS), within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS, South Korea), and colleagues have reported a novel phenomenon, called Valley Acoustoelectric Effect, which takes place in 2-D materials, similar to graphene. This research is published in Physical Review Letters and brings new insights to the study of valleytronics.

In acoustoelectronics, surface acoustic waves (SAWs) are employed to generate electric currents. In this study, the team of theoretical physicists modelled the propagation of SAWs in emerging 2-D materials, such as single-layer molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂). SAWs drag MoS₂ electrons (and holes), creating an electric current with conventional and unconventional components. The latter consists of two contributions: a warping-based current and a Hall current. The first is direction-dependent, is related to the so-called valleys—electrons’ local energy minima—and resembles one of the mechanisms that explains photovoltaic effects of 2-D materials exposed to light. The second is due to a specific effect (Berry phase) that affects the velocity of these electrons travelling as a group and resulting in intriguing phenomena, such as anomalous and quantum Hall effects.

The team analyzed the properties of the acoustoelectric current, suggesting a way to run and measure the conventional, warping, and Hall currents independently. This allows the simultaneous use of both optical and acoustic techniques to control the propagation of charge carriers in novel 2-D materials, creating new logical devices.

Via World Economic Forum

It’s a clean and viable replacement for fossil fuels in transport, energy storage and power-to-gas applications. But public doubts around hydrogen safety are contributing to the delay in its adoption around the world.

It’s easy to take time’s arrow for granted — but the gears of physics actually work just as smoothly in reverse. Maybe that time machine is possible after all?

An experiment earlier this year shows just how much wiggle room we can expect when it comes to distinguishing the past from the future, at least on a quantum scale. It might not allow us to relive the 1960s, but it could help us better understand why not.

Researchers from Russia and the US teamed up to find a way to break, or at least bend, one of physics’ most fundamental laws on energy.

Industrial development of the moon, based on mining water ice for rocket propellant, could jumpstart new energy and material markets on Earth as it drives the human settlement of interplanetary space.

(21 Oct 2017) LEADIN:

Forget plugging in to charge up your new electric car, engineers are now working towards a future where you never need to plug in ever again.

Continue reading “Self charging car batteries mean you’ll never need to plug in” »

Generating electricity from geothermal energy requires devices that can somehow make use of the heat within the Earth’s crust.

Nanolive, a spinoff company of École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, has just introduced a holographic microscope that can image live cells at high resolution over extended time periods.

Nanolive’s CX-A device relies on a low energy light beam to penetrate the sample, which does not interfere with internal cell activity. At every exposure, the system creates a 3D dataset of the sample, down to resolutions below 200 nanometers, which it can do repeatedly for hours at a time. Since entire 96-well plates can be imaged by the microscope, 96 individual experiments can be performed at once.

The system requires no cell preparation such as staining and doesn’t cause any phototoxicity or photo-bleaching in the samples.

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. — Army officials announced the exclusive licensing of a new technology designed to harvest hydrogen from an aluminum alloy powder and any fluid that contains water.

“This is on-demand hydrogen production,” said Dr. Anit Giri, a materials scientist at the U.S. Army CCDC Army Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. “Utilizing hydrogen, you can generate power on-demand, which is very important for the Soldier.”

Army researchers discovered a structurally-stable, aluminum-based nanogalvanic alloy powder in 2017, which reacts with water or any water-based liquid to produce on-demand hydrogen for power generation without a catalyst.