RSS Parrot

Fiber setup compresses mid-infrared pulses to 187 femtoseconds using just 80 watts

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-fiber-setup-compresses-mid-infrared.html

Published: March 11, 2026 18:10

Ultrashort mid-infrared (mid-IR) laser pulses are essential for applications such as molecular spectroscopy, nonlinear microscopy, and biomedical imaging, but their generation often relies on complex and power-intensive systems that are difficult to…

Stacked quantum materials enable precise spin control without external magnetic fields

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-stacked-quantum-materials-enable-precise.html

Published: March 11, 2026 17:20

Spintronics—a technology that harnesses the electron's magnetic quantum states to carry information—could pave the way for a new generation of ultra-energy-efficient electronics. Yet a major challenge has been the ability to control these delicate quantum…

Simulations suggest a breakthrough in understanding how turbulence develops

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-simulations-breakthrough-turbulence.html

Published: March 11, 2026 17:10

A new study revisits a century-old question about how turbulence starts. The findings could potentially influence not only aircraft engineering but even the design of mechanical heart valves, and treatment of heart disease. The study is published in…

Fluid simulation at unprecedented scale provides toolkit for fundamental physics and applied fluid engineering

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-fluid-simulation-unprecedented-scale-toolkit.html

Published: March 11, 2026 17:10

What governs the speed at which raindrops fall, sediment settles in river estuaries, and matter is ejected during a supernova? These questions circle around one, deceitfully simple factor: the rate at which a fluid filled with particles mixes with a…

Twisted bilayer photonic crystals dynamically tune light's handedness

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-bilayer-photonic-crystals-dynamically-tune.html

Published: March 11, 2026 15:30

Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have created a chip-scale device that can dynamically control the "handedness" of light as it passes through—also known as its optical chirality—with a simple…

Photonic 'ski jumps' efficiently beam light into free space

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-photonic-efficiently-free-space.html

Published: March 11, 2026 14:50

Photonic chips use light to process data instead of electricity, enabling faster communication speeds and greater bandwidth. Most of that light typically stays on the chip, trapped in optical wires, and is difficult to transmit to the outside world in an…

Acoustic driving enables controlled condensation of light and matter on chip

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-acoustic-enables-condensation-chip.html

Published: March 11, 2026 12:40

An international research team led by Alexander Kuznetsov at the Paul Drude Institute for Solid State Electronics (PDI) in Berlin has demonstrated a fundamentally new way to control the condensation of hybrid light-matter particles. Using coherent acoustic…

Researchers mix X-rays and optical light to track speedy electrons in materials

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-rays-optical-track-speedy-electrons.html

Published: March 11, 2026 09:20

To unlock materials of the future, including better photocatalysts or light-switchable superconductors, researchers need to understand how the valence electrons within materials respond to light at the atomic scale. Materials are made of atoms, and an…

Scalable quantum batteries can charge faster than their classical counterparts

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-scalable-quantum-batteries-faster-classical.html

Published: March 11, 2026 08:00

Over the past decades, energy engineers have developed increasingly advanced battery technologies that can store more energy, charge faster and maintain their performance for longer. In recent years, some researchers have also started exploring the…

Watching quantum behavior in action: MagnetoARPES reveals time-reversal symmetry breaking in a kagome superconductor

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-quantum-behavior-action-magnetoarpes-reveals.html

Published: March 11, 2026 06:00

Electron movement and structures described in quantum physics allow researchers to better understand how and why materials like superconductors behave as they do. Rice University researchers Jianwei Huang and Ming Yi have developed a new capability,…

Ultrafast computing: Light-driven logic tops 10 terahertz in WS₂

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-ultrafast-driven-logic-tops-terahertz.html

Published: March 10, 2026 19:40

The future for our computers will literally be at the speed of light. Extremely short light pulses can perform ultrafast logical operations: these are the findings of a study recently published in the journal Nature Photonics. The study represents an…

Chemical shifts help track molecules breaking apart in real time

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-chemical-shifts-track-molecules-real.html

Published: March 10, 2026 18:00

When molecules fall apart, their electric charge doesn't stay put—it rearranges as bonds stretch and break. An international team of scientists has now tracked these ultrafast changes in the small molecule fluoromethane (CH₃F). It was the first time that…

Unexpected magnetic response in gold and silver atomic contacts contradicts previous theoretical predictions

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-unexpected-magnetic-response-gold-silver.html

Published: March 10, 2026 17:10

Researchers from the Department of Physics and the University Institute of Materials at the University of Alicante (UA) and the Low Temperature and High Magnetic Field Laboratory at the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) have succeeded in measuring, for…

3D-printed photonic lanterns combine up to 37 multimode lasers into one fiber

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-3d-photonic-lanterns-combine-multimode.html

Published: March 10, 2026 16:10

Researchers have developed a microscopic 3D-printed optical device that can efficiently combine light from dozens of small semiconductor lasers into a single multimode optical fiber with very low loss. The team demonstrated photonic lanterns that multiplex…

Scientists control 'free-flowing' electric currents with light

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-scientists-free-electric-currents.html

Published: March 10, 2026 15:40

By controlling magnetic fields using light, a team of researchers led by NTU scientists has solved a long-standing challenge to precisely direct electric currents produced by quantum materials. Their findings unlock new avenues for controlling the flow of…

Understanding how wind moves pollen can guide urban planning decisions about green spaces

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-pollen-urban-decisions-green-spaces.html

Published: March 10, 2026 11:00

Due to climate change, plants' pollination season has been growing longer and longer. As a result, people are exposed to allergens for extended periods each year, raising a major public health concern. Researchers from Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University,…

Precisely measuring quantum signals in large spin ensembles

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-precisely-quantum-large-ensembles.html

Published: March 10, 2026 11:00

Quantum mechanical effects are known to be easily disrupted by disturbances from the surrounding environment, commonly referred to as noise. To minimize these disturbances, physicists often study these effects in small and carefully controlled systems, in…

How does snow gather on a roof? Simulation considers turbulence alongside snowflake size

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-roof-simulation-turbulence-snowflake-size.html

Published: March 10, 2026 11:00

No two snowflakes may be the same, but models that fail to take these variations into consideration often fall short when calculating the way snow accumulates on roofs. In Physics of Fluids, researchers from Harbin Institute of Technology in China modeled…

Study shows spiral sound can shift sideways

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-spiral-shift-sideways.html

Published: March 10, 2026 10:20

A new University of Mississippi study shows that some sound waves don't just move forward—they also move slightly to the side. Understanding this movement could help researchers develop more precise acoustic tools. Likun Zhang, associate professor of…

Miniature laser technology could bring lab testing into your home

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-miniature-laser-technology-lab-home.html

Published: March 10, 2026 09:40

A research team at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, has developed new laser technology that could lead to tiny, cost-effective biosensors. The sensors integrate lasers and optics together on a centimeter-sized chip, which could move testing from…

In search of a room-temperature superconductor, scientists present a research agenda

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-room-temperature-superconductor-scientists-agenda.html

Published: March 9, 2026 18:00

The search for materials that can conduct electricity at room temperature without losing energy is one of the greatest and most consequential challenges of modern physics: loss-free power transmission, more efficient motors and generators, more powerful…

Nanosecond light-by-light switching achieved in liquid crystal droplet

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-nanosecond-liquid-crystal-droplet.html

Published: March 9, 2026 17:30

Controlling light with light is a long-sought goal for computing and communication technologies. Achieving this capability would allow optical signals to be processed without converting them into electrical signals, potentially enabling faster and more…

Ultrafast light pulses make molecules rotate on quantum materials

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-ultrafast-pulses-molecules-rotate-quantum.html

Published: March 9, 2026 15:20

Researchers from Germany, Japan and India, led by scientists from DESY and the Universities of Kiel and Hamburg, have found a way to collectively make molecules on a flat surface rotate by exposing them to light using ultrafast light pulses from DESY's…

Strontium optical clock accurate to within 1 second over 30 billion years

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-strontium-optical-clock-accurate-billion.html

Published: March 9, 2026 08:40

Researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China have achieved a major breakthrough in optical clock technology, developing a strontium optical lattice clock with stability and uncertainty both surpassing the 10⁻¹⁹ level, meaning the…

Superconductivity controlled by a built-in light-confining cavity

https://phys.org/news/2026-02-superconductivity-built-confining-cavity.html

Published: March 8, 2026 18:00

For the first time, physicists have demonstrated that a material's superconductivity can be altered by coupling it to an in-built, light-confining cavity. In experiments published in Nature, a team led by Itai Keren at Columbia University show how quantum…

'Mesoscale' swimmers could pave way for drug delivery robots inside the body

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-mesoscale-swimmers-pave-drug-delivery.html

Published: March 8, 2026 16:00

In physics, the mesoscale lies between the microscopic and the macroscopic. It is not just the domain of tiny living creatures like small larvae, shrimp, and jellyfish, but also where physics equations become extreme. While the macroscopic realm is…

Quantum entanglement offers route to higher-resolution optical astronomy

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-quantum-entanglement-route-higher-resolution.html

Published: March 8, 2026 13:00

Researchers in the US have demonstrated how quantum entanglement could be used to detect optical signals from astronomical sources at the single-photon level. Published in Nature, a team led by Pieter-Jan Stas at Harvard University showed how extremely…

'Superconducting dome' hints at high-temperature superconductivity in thin nickelate films

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-superconducting-dome-hints-high-temperature.html

Published: March 7, 2026 12:10

Superconductivity is a quantum state of matter characterized by an electrical resistance of zero and the expulsion of magnetic fields at low temperatures below a critical point. Superconductors, materials in which this state occurs, have proved to be…

Material previously thought to be quantum is actually a new, non-quantum state of matter

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-material-previously-thought-quantum-state.html

Published: March 6, 2026 14:00

Magnetic materials in a quantum spin liquid phase are of great interest in the pursuit of exotic state of matter and quantum computation. But in the quantum realm, things are not always what they seem. A study, published in Science Advances and co-led by…

Water-window X-rays without a synchrotron: How graphite flakes could shrink bioimaging tools

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-window-rays-synchrotron-graphite-flakes.html

Published: March 6, 2026 13:40

Researchers from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have found a new way to produce X-rays with wavelengths in what is called the "water window." This new method holds promise in making bioimaging X-ray machines smaller and more…

Large area MoS₂ reduces energy loss in magnetic memory films

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-large-area-mos-energy-loss.html

Published: March 6, 2026 13:20

Scientists at the University of Manchester have discovered that placing magnetic films on atomically thin molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) fundamentally changes how they lose energy, a finding that could bring 2D‑material spintronics a step closer to real…

Can we design sports shoes that don't squeak? Here's what the science says

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-sports-dont-science.html

Published: March 6, 2026 10:30

The unofficial soundtrack of every basketball, squash or hard-court tennis match is the constant high-pitched squeak or shriek of the players' shoes. But can this squeak be designed out of them while retaining the grip?

A superradiant clock phase emerges when Rydberg atoms meet quantum light, simulations suggest

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-superradiant-clock-phase-emerges-rydberg.html

Published: March 6, 2026 08:00

Rydberg atoms are atoms with one or more outer electrons excited to very high energy levels, which interact very strongly with each other. These atoms are widely used to run quantum simulations and develop quantum technologies, as they can give rise to…

Engineers improve infrared devices using century-old materials

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-infrared-devices-century-materials.html

Published: March 5, 2026 19:20

After decades of intense research, surprises in the realm of semiconductors—materials used in microchips to control electrical currents—are few and far between. But with a pair of published papers, materials engineers at Stanford University debut a…

AI-designed diffractive optical processors pave the way for low-power structural health monitoring

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-ai-diffractive-optical-processors-pave.html

Published: March 5, 2026 18:30

A team of researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has introduced a novel framework for monitoring structural vibrations using diffractive optical processors. This new technology uses artificial intelligence to co-optimize a passive…

Making mini-lightning in a block of plastic

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-mini-lightning-block-plastic.html

Published: March 5, 2026 18:10

Lightning formation and the conditions triggering it have long been shrouded in a cloud of mystery, but new research led by Penn State scientists is lifting the fog. Using mathematical calculations, the researchers have discovered that lightning-like…

Researchers create a never-before-seen molecule and prove its exotic nature with quantum computing

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-molecule-exotic-nature-quantum.html

Published: March 5, 2026 17:50

An international team of scientists from IBM, The University of Manchester, Oxford University, ETH Zurich, EPFL and the University of Regensburg have created and characterized a molecule unlike any previously known—one whose electrons travel through its…

Why Large Hadron Collider predictions can miss the mark, and a new way to fix it

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-large-hadron-collider.html

Published: March 5, 2026 17:30

Estimating things that exist is generally easy, but when it comes to estimating things that do not exist, it's more difficult. This is something physicists from Poland and the UK are well aware of. To improve current simulations of high-energy particle…

Electric field tunes vibrations to ease heat transfer

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-electric-field-tunes-vibrations-ease.html

Published: March 5, 2026 16:30

New research from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in collaboration with The Ohio State University and Amphenol Corporation, challenges conventional understanding about controlling heat flow in solid materials. The study, published…

Polymers that crawl like worms: How materials can develop direction without being told where to go

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-polymers-worms-materials-told.html

Published: March 5, 2026 13:20

Researchers at the University of Vienna have uncovered a surprising phenomenon: polymer chains with segments that simply fluctuate at different intensities can spontaneously develop directional, persistent motion when densely packed—even though nothing in…

Neutrons reveal magnetic signatures of chiral phonons

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-neutrons-reveal-magnetic-signatures-chiral.html

Published: March 5, 2026 09:20

Physicists in China have uncovered new evidence that chiral phonons and magnons can interact strongly inside magnetic crystals. Using neutron spectroscopy, a team led by Song Bao at Nanjing University mapped magnetic signatures linked to chiral phonons in…

Molecular 'catapult' fires electrons at the limits of physics

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-molecular-catapult-electrons-limits-physics.html

Published: March 5, 2026 05:00

Electrons can be "kicked across" solar materials at almost the fastest speed nature allows, scientists have discovered, challenging long-held theories about how solar energy systems work. The finding could help researchers design more efficient ways of…

Trapping light on thermal photodetectors shatters speed records

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-thermal-photodetectors-shatters.html

Published: March 4, 2026 18:10

Electrical engineers at Duke University have demonstrated the fastest pyroelectric photodetector to date, which works by absorbing heat generated by incoming light. Capable of capturing light from the entire electromagnetic spectrum, the ultrathin device…

What's going on inside quantum computers? New method simplifies process tomography

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-quantum-method-tomography.html

Published: March 4, 2026 16:40

Quantum computers work by applying quantum operations, such as quantum gates, to delicate quantum states. Ideally, quantum computers can solve complex equations at staggeringly fast speeds that vastly outpace regular computers. In real hardware, the…

Debugging a quantum processor: New method pinpoints qubit errors during logical operations

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-debugging-quantum-processor-method-qubit.html

Published: March 4, 2026 16:20

Researchers at the University of Innsbruck, together with partners from Sydney and Waterloo, have presented a new diagnostic method for quantum computers. It makes errors in individual quantum bits visible during logical calculation and evaluates them. The…

NA62 Collaboration refines measurement of rare particle decay

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-na62-collaboration-refines-rare-particle.html

Published: March 4, 2026 12:40

The NA62 Collaboration has dramatically reduced the uncertainty in its measurement of an extremely rare particle decay, in results just presented at the 2026 La Thuile conference.

Möbius-inspired surface controls light in two directions

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-mbius-surface.html

Published: March 4, 2026 10:00

Light is an unusually rich carrier of information. Its direction of travel, wavelength, and polarization can all be used to encode signals or images. Yet controlling these properties independently remains difficult, especially when light can enter a device…

Liquid crystal phase in antiferromagnets can be detected electrically

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-liquid-crystal-phase-antiferromagnets-electrically.html

Published: March 3, 2026 14:20

The best candidate for next-generation magnetic devices—technology that can power, store, sense or transport information—may be, counterintuitively, antiferromagnets. Today, the most widely used magnetic materials are ferromagnets, which exhibit permanent…

Letting atomic simulations learn from phase diagrams

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-atomic-simulations-phase-diagrams.html

Published: March 3, 2026 13:40

A new computational method allows modern atomic models to learn from experimental thermodynamic data, according to a University of Michigan Engineering and Université Paris-Saclay study published in Nature Communications. Leveraging a machine learning…

A new 'uncertainty relation' for quantum measurement errors

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-uncertainty-quantum-errors.html

Published: March 3, 2026 12:00

One of the most striking features of quantum physics is that certain properties cannot be measured at the same time. Every measurement may inevitably affect the object's physical state being measured—and therefore also the outcome of any subsequent…

Reduce rust by dumping your wok twice, and other kitchen tips

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-rust-dumping-wok-kitchen.html

Published: March 3, 2026 11:00

When you reach the bottom of a container of milk or honey, you might be tempted to tip the container over to get that last pesky little bit out. After all, you only need another teaspoon for that recipe, and you're sure it's in there. From emptying jars to…

Hidden atomic dichotomy drives superconductivity in ultra-thin compound

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-hidden-atomic-dichotomy-superconductivity-ultra.html

Published: March 3, 2026 08:10

Physicists in China have unveiled new clues to the origins of high-temperature superconductivity in an iron-based material just a single unit-cell thick. Led by Qi-Kun Xue and Lili Wang at Tsinghua University, the team's experiments show that the effect…

National report supports measurement innovation to aid commercial fusion energy and enable new plasma technologies

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-national-aid-commercial-fusion-energy.html

Published: March 2, 2026 22:40

To operate fusion systems safely and reliably, scientists need to monitor plasma fuel conditions and measure properties like temperature and density that can affect fusion reactions. Making these measurements requires specialized sensors known as…

Quantum dynamics show 'memory' depends on whether states or observables evolve

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-quantum-dynamics-memory-states-evolve.html

Published: March 2, 2026 19:40

An international group of researchers have investigated the role of memory in quantum systems and dynamics. Their findings show that a quantum process can appear memoryless from one perspective while retaining memory from another. The discovery opens new…

Mott and Kondo insulators—how external stimuli can modify electronic energy bands

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-mott-kondo-insulators-external-stimuli.html

Published: March 2, 2026 16:50

A study from the Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA) has uncovered a theoretical mechanism showing how the electronic band structures of strongly correlated insulators can be reshaped by spin and charge perturbations, opening up new…

Scientists unveil universal aging mechanism in glassy materials

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-scientists-unveil-universal-aging-mechanism.html

Published: March 2, 2026 16:20

"Glass" has a unique and distinct meaning in physics—one that refers not just to the transparent material we associate with window glass. Instead, it refers to any system that looks solid but is not in true equilibrium and continues to change extremely…

Smart fluorescent molecules provide cheaper path to sharper microscopy images

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-smart-fluorescent-molecules-cheaper-path.html

Published: March 2, 2026 16:10

Multiphoton microscopy is used in biomedical research to study cells and tissues. Today, so-called two-photon microscopy is used to study processes within cells, but the technique has limitations in terms of image resolution. Four-photon microscopy…

3D-printed 'plug' links fiber optics to photonic chips with low loss

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-3d-links-fiber-optics-photonic.html

Published: March 2, 2026 16:00

Physicists and chemists at Heidelberg University have realized a photonic microchip that is driven by light just as easily as electronic components via a "plug." Their development could serve as the basis for fast and cost-effective production of photonic…

Laser-within-a-laser delivers MeV X-ray radiography in picoseconds

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-laser-mev-ray-radiography-picoseconds.html

Published: March 2, 2026 12:40

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility (NIF) is the hottest place on Earth for the briefest of moments during an experiment. Now, it can be one of the brightest places thanks to the Advanced Radiographic Capability (ARC), NIF's…

Superfluids emerge in 2D moiré crystal formed from time, study predicts

https://phys.org/news/2026-02-superfluids-emerge-2d-moir-crystal.html

Published: March 2, 2026 07:40

Conventional crystals are materials in which atoms arrange themselves in repeating spatial patterns. Time crystals, on the other hand, are phases of matter characterized by repeating motions over time without constantly heating up, breaking a physical rule…

Simulations show a path to 'ideal glass' with crystal-like entropy

https://phys.org/news/2026-02-simulations-path-ideal-glass-crystal.html

Published: March 1, 2026 13:00

The types of glass that we encounter in everyday life, such as window glass or smartphone screens, are disordered solids. This means that they consist of particles locked in place, like those in solids, but arranged randomly, similarly to how they would be…

Heavier hydrogen makes silicon T centers shine brighter for quantum networks

https://phys.org/news/2026-02-heavier-hydrogen-silicon-centers-brighter.html

Published: February 28, 2026 12:30

Quantum technologies, computers or other devices that operate leveraging quantum mechanical effects, rely on the precise control of light and matter. Over the past decades, quantum physicists and material scientists have been trying to identify systems…

Dynamical freezing can protect quantum information for near-cosmic timescales

https://phys.org/news/2026-02-dynamical-quantum-cosmic-timescales.html

Published: February 27, 2026 19:40

Preserving quantum information is key to developing useful quantum computing systems. But interacting quantum systems are chaotic and follow laws of thermodynamics, eventually leading to information loss. Physicists have long known of a strange exception,…