Invented approximately 50 years ago, surgical medical meshes have become key elements in the recovery procedures of damaged-tissue surgeries, the most common being hernia repair. When implanted within the tissue of the patient, the flexible and conformable design of these meshes helps hold muscles tight and allows patients to recover much faster than through the…
Graphene Could Aid Future Terahertz Cameras
A study in Nano Letters reports on the development of a graphene-enabled detector for terahertz light that is faster and more sensitive than existing room-temperature technologies. Detecting terahertz (THz) light is extremely useful for two main reasons. Firstly, THz technology is becoming a key element in applications regarding security (such as airport scanners), wireless data…
Graphene Flagship Heads Toward New Stage
The Graphene Flagship was launched in 2013 with the mission to take graphene and related layered materials from academic laboratories to society, revolutionize multiple industries and create economic growth and new jobs in Europe. After five years, the Flagship consortium has successfully completed the Core1 phase and is progressing smoothly towards more applied phases. It…
Nano-imaging of Intersubband Transitions
Semiconducting heterostructures have been key to the development of electronics and opto-electronics. Many applications in the infrared and terahertz frequency range exploit transitions, called intersubband transitions, between quantized states in semiconductor quantum wells. These intraband transitions exhibit very large oscillator strengths, close to unity. Their discovery in III-V semiconductor heterostructures depicted a huge impact within…
Quantum Internet Goes Hybrid
In a recent study, published in Nature, ICFO researchers Nicolas Maring, Pau Farrera, Dr. Kutlu Kutluer, Dr. Margherita Mazzera, and Dr. Georg Heinze led by ICREA Prof. Hugues de Riedmatten, have achieved an elementary “hybrid” quantum network link and demonstrated for the first time photonic quantum communication between two very distinct quantum nodes placed in different…
Observing Electrons Surfing Waves of Light on Graphene
Researchers have studied how light can be used to observe the quantum nature of an electronic material. They captured light in graphene and slowed it down to the speed of the material’s electrons. Then electrons and light started to move in concert, manifesting their quantum nature at such large scale that it could observed with…
Graphene Creates Camera That Can See the Invisible
Over the past 40 years, microelectronics has advanced by leaps and bounds thanks to silicon and CMOS (Complementary metal-oxide semiconductors) technology, making possible computing, smartphones, compact and low-cost digital cameras, as well as most of the electronic gadgets we rely on today. However, the diversification of this platform into applications other than microcircuits and visible…
Energy Decay in Graphene Resonators
Energy dissipation is a key ingredient in understanding many physical phenomena in thermodynamics, photonics, chemical reactions, nuclear fission, photon emissions, or even electronic circuits, among others. In a vibrating system, the energy dissipation is quantified by the quality factor. If the quality factor of the resonator is high, the mechanical energy will dissipate at a…