Light is a more energy efficient and faster way of transferring data than electricity. Until now, the rapid attenuation of light signals in microchips has prevented the use of light as a source of an information signal. With international collaboration, researchers at Aalto University have now developed a nanosized amplifier to help light signals propagate…
Colored Thin Films of Nanotubes Created for First Time
Researchers present a technique to produce large quantities of pristine single-walled carbon nanotubes in select shades of the rainbow. The secret is a fine-tuned fabrication process — and a small dose of CO2. Single-walled carbon nanotubes, or sheets of one atom-thick layers of graphene rolled up into different sizes and shapes, have found many uses…
Measuring Magnetic Fields using a Quantum System
There are limits to how accurately you can measure things. Think of an X-ray image: it is likely quite blurry and something only an expert physician can interpret properly. The contrast between different tissues is rather poor but could be improved by longer exposure times, higher intensity, or by taking several images and overlapping them.…
Time Crystals May Hold Secret to Coherence in Quantum Computing
An Aalto University study has provided new evidence that time crystals can physically exist – a claim currently under hot debate. A time crystal is a structure that does not repeat in space, like normal three-dimensional crystals such as snowflakes or diamonds, but in time. In practice this means that crystals constantly undergo spontaneous change,…
Customized Carbon Surfaces Used for Water Purification, Medical Devices
Researchers at Aalto University and Cambridge University have made a significant breakthrough in computational science by combining atomic-level modelling and machine learning. For the first time, the method has been used to realistically model how an amorphous material is formed at the atomic level: that is, a material that does not have a regular crystalline…
Scientists Observe a New Quantum Particle With Properties of Ball Lightning
Friction Found Where There Should Be None: In Superfluids Near Absolute Zero
Understanding the causes and effects of the friction could pave the way for explorations into the composition of neutron stars and our universe. Here on Earth, the Aalto researchers’ results will be invaluable for curtailing the production of heat and unwanted glitches in quantum computer components. “For now, we have to study the phenomenon itself…
Making the Internet of Things Possible with a New Breed of ‘Memristors’
The internet of things is coming, that much we know. But still it won’t; not until we have components and chips that can handle the explosion of data that comes with IoT. In 2020, there will already be 50 billion industrial internet sensors in place all around us. A single autonomous device – a smart…
New Biosensor Echoes Home Pregnancy Tests
The plasmonic biosensor can detect diseased exosomes even by the naked eye. Exosomes, important indicators of health conditions, are cell-derived vesicles that are present in blood and urine. A rapid analysis by biosensors helps recognize inflammatory bowel diseases, cancer and other diseases rapidly and start relevant treatments in time. In addition to using discovery in…
Doped-Up Semiconductors Lead to Next-Gen Electronics
Physicists at Aalto University have made a breakthrough in revising methods largely discarded 15 years ago. They have discovered a microscopic mechanism that will allow gallium nitride semiconductors to be used in electronic devices that distribute large amounts of electric power. The trick is to be able to use beryllium atoms in gallium nitride. Gallium…
Nanoparticle Assembly Behaves Like a Zipper
It has always been the Holy Grail of materials science to describe and control the material’s structure-function relationship. Nanoparticles are an attractive class of components to be used in functional materials because they exhibit size-dependent properties, such as superparamagnetism and plasmonic absorption of light. Furthermore, controlling the arrangement of nanoparticles can result in unforeseen properties,…
Researchers Printed Graphene-Like Materials with Inkjet
An international research team has developed inks made of graphene-like materials for inkjet printing. New black phosphorous inks are compatible with conventional inkjet printing techniques for optoelectronics and photonics. Since the discovery of the Nobel Prize winning material graphene, many new nanomaterials promise to deliver exciting new photonic and optoelectronic technologies. Black phosphorous is a…
Chemical Route Toward Electronic Devices in Graphene
Essential electronic components, such as diodes and tunnel barriers, can be incorporated in single graphene wires (nanoribbons) with atomic precision. The goal is to create graphene-based electronic devices with extremely fast operational speeds. The discovery was made in a collaboration between Aalto University and their colleagues at Utrecht University and TU Delft in the Netherlands.…
Chemical Route Towards Electronic Devices in Graphene
The ‘wonder material’ graphene has many interesting characteristics, and researchers around the world are looking for new ways to utilise them. Graphene itself does not have the characteristics needed to switch electrical currents on and off and smart solutions must be found for this particular problem. “We can make graphene structures with atomic precision. By…
Frequency Modulation Accelerates Research of Quantum Technologies
Refrigerator for Quantum Computers Discovered
Self-Assembled Nanostructures Can Be Selectively Controlled
Plasmonic nanoparticles exhibit properties based on their geometries and relative positions. Researchers have now developed an easy way to manipulate the optical properties of plasmonic nanostructures that strongly depend on their spatial arrangement. The plasmonic nanoparticles can form clusters, plasmonic metamolecules, and then interact with each other. Changing the geometry of the nanoparticles can be…
Self-Assembled Nanostructures Can Be Selectively Controlled
Nanotube Film May Resolve Longevity Problems of Challenger Solar Cells
Five years ago, the world started to talk about third-generation solar cells that challenged the traditional silicon cells with a cheaper and simpler manufacturing process that used less energy. Methylammonium lead iodide is a metal-organic material in the perovskite crystal structure that captures light efficiently and conducts electricity well — both important qualities in solar…
Silicon On Insulator Wafer Proves Useful for Microelectronics
In cooperation with Okmetic Oy and the Polish ITME, researchers at Aalto University have studied the application of SOI (Silicon On Insulator) wafers, which are used as a platform for manufacturing different microelectronics components, as a substrate for producing gallium nitride crystals. The researchers compared the characteristics of gallium nitride (GaN) layers grown on SOI…
Nanoparticles Used to Create Tiny Lasers
The laser works at length scales 1000 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair. The lifetimes of light captured in such small dimensions are so short that the light wave has time to wiggle up and down only a few tens or hundreds of times. The results open new prospects for on-chip coherent…
Light Detector with Record-High Sensitivity to Revolutionize Imaging
The research team led by Professor Hele Savin has developed a new light detector that can capture more than 96 percent of the photons covering visible, ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths. “Present-day light detectors suffer from severe reflection losses as currently used antireflection coatings are limited to specific wavelengths and a fixed angle of incidence. Our…
Remote-Controlled Drone Helps in Designing Future Wireless Networks
The development of mobile devices has set increasingly high requirements for wireless networks and the emission of radio frequencies. Researcher Vasilii Semkin together with a research group at Aalto University and Tampere University of Technology has recently tested in their research work how aerial photographs taken using a so-called drone could be used in designing…
Researchers Nearly Reached Quantum Limit with Nanodrums
Researchers at Aalto University and the University of Jyväskylä have developed a new method of measuring microwave signals extremely accurately. This method can be used for processing quantum information, for example by efficiently transforming signals from microwave circuits to the optical regime. Important quantum limit If you are trying to tune in a radio station…
Researchers Develop Alternative Approach to Quantum Computing
Researchers at Aalto University have demonstrated the suitability of microwave signals in the coding of information for quantum computing. Previous development of the field has been focusing on optical systems. Researchers used a microwave resonator based on extremely sensitive measurement devices known as superconductive quantum interference devices (SQUIDs). In their studies, the resonator was cooled…