Steven Linggie’s Post

Researchers from North Carolina State University; Stanford University; the U.S. Department of Energy’s Berkeley Lab and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory; and the University of Geneva have, for the first time, demonstrated that a specific class of #oxide membranes can confine, or "squeeze," #infrared #light. The thin-film membranes (which are 100-#nanometer-thick) confine infrared light far better than bulk #crystals, which are the established technology for infrared light confinement. "We've demonstrated that we can confine infrared light to 10% of its wavelength while maintaining its frequency – meaning that the amount of time that it takes for a wavelength to cycle is the same, but the distance between the peaks of the wave is much closer together,” said Yin Liu, one of the scientists involved in this study. “Bulk crystal techniques confine infrared light to around 97% of its wavelength." https://lnkd.in/dvN-6rvk (Work funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)) Ruijuan Xu

Linking the Quantum Realm with the topology of Materials Science is the Direction of the Future.

🥼 🔬 🧪 Paper of the Day ❗ ❗ ❗ Carbon nitride caught in the act of artificial photosynthesis The Paper of the Day describes an in-situ study of the photocatalytic water splitting process using a carbon nitride thin film. The key findings are: The adsorption of water molecules on the carbon nitride surface changes the electronic structure of the photocatalyst, with a shift of the XPS peaks towards higher binding energies. This indicates a donation of electron density from the carbon nitride to the adsorbed water, lowering the overall electron density of the semiconductor surface. Upon light illumination, the electronic structure of the carbon nitride changes, with a shift of the XPS peaks towards lower binding energies. This suggests a stabilization of the photoexcited electrons in the carbon nitride structure, likely at the water adsorption sites. The spectroscopic changes indicate the formation of a stable electron-proton pair, which is interpreted as an intermediate in the proton-coupled electron transfer mechanism of the photocatalytic water splitting process. The photocatalytic evolution of deuterium and oxygen as final products was monitored using a time-of-flight mass spectrometer, showing a significant conversion of the heavy water precursor under solar simulator illumination. #Photocatalytic #Watersplitting #Carbonnitride #Electronicstructure #Xray #photoelectronspectroscopy #XPS #NearedgeXrayabsorptionspectroscopy #NEXAFS #Adsorption #Lightillumination #Electrondensity #Protoncoupledelectrontransfer #Researcharticle #Openaccess #SOL #Scienceoflives #Scienceoflife #Paperoftheday #POD Date: 06/01/2025 For more, click the link below https://lnkd.in/gvm_QMen For more, click the link below https://lnkd.in/gmJuz4eC

The article "Quantum Sensing with Optically Accessible Spin Defects in Van der Waals Layered Materials" by Fang et al. discusses recent advancements and potential applications of quantum sensing through optically active spin defects within 2D van der Waals (vdW) materials. The paper emphasizes how these defects, particularly in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), serve as powerful tools for detecting physical and chemical changes at the nanoscale, such as magnetic fields, temperature, and pressure. The authors highlight the advantages of vdW materials, like their high spatial resolution and compatibility with various heterostructures. They also outline challenges, including short spin coherence times and low quantum efficiencies compared to conventional materials like diamonds, and suggest further research into defect engineering, quantum-photonic integration, and proximity effects to enhance sensor capabilities. Applications span from material sciences to biological sensing, promising advances in areas like DNA sequencing and nanoscale magnetic field mapping. For more details, please continue reading the full article under the following link: https://lnkd.in/eJsGn5XT -------------------------------------------------------- Please consult also the Quantum Server Marketplace platform for the outsourcing of computational science R&D projects to external expert consultants through remote collaborations: https://lnkd.in/eRmYbj4x #materials #materialsscience #materialsengineering #computationalchemistry #modelling #chemistry #researchanddevelopment #research #MaterialsSquare #ComputationalChemistry #Tutorial #DFT #simulationsoftware #simulation

In transmission electron microscopy, chromatic aberration limited spatial resolution and energy resolution in EELS depends on the energy spread of the electron beam and hence the type of the electron emitter. Traditional electron sources include W based or LaB₆ or CeB₆ based electron emitters which provide energy spreads of 0.3-0.4 eV for cold field emitters, 0.7 eV for thermally assisted or Schottky field emitters and 1 eV for thermionic emitters. The highest energy resolution is obtained with cold-FEG consisting of W(310) emitter surface. However, for high energy resolution EELS, this is still a very poor energy resolution especially for low-loss EELS and needs monochromation. This large energy spread, especially in ultrafast electron emitters is attributed to the optically excited electrons occupying a range of energy levels in metals, resulting in broadening of the energy levels. Another disadvantage of ultrafast electron microscopy, is that if you have high spatial resolution, there's a compromise in the temporal resolution and vice versa. Now researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences of constructed a field photoemitter made of a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) with 2 nm diameter. Its 1D body provides a sharp quantized electronic excited state, while 0D tip provides quantized energy level acting as a narrow photoemission channel. This provides a highly coherent photoemission evidenced by a negative differential resistance effect (NDR) and field driven Stark field effect. The new electron photoemitter provided an energy resolution of about 0.057 eV and could provide a very high spatiotemporal resolution (sub-Å spatial resolution and femtosecond temporal resolution). Read the exciting work published in the journal Science Advances. https://lnkd.in/dd6y24wM #photoemission #energylevelbroadening #fieldemission #coherentphotoemission #energylevelquantization #energyspread #energyresolution #ultrafastelectronmicroscopy #UTEM #TEM #STEM #electronmicroscopy

For over six decades, the development of single-photon detectors has been based on photoexcitation across energy gaps in semiconductors or superconductors. While effective for high-energy photons, this approach limits detection capabilities at lower energies. In a new work now on arXiv, Bevin Huang, Ethan Arnault et. al. in colaboration with Raytheon Technologies (BBN), Washington University in St. Louis and Pohang University of Science and Technology introduce a fundamentally different strategy: an electron calorimeter that directly measures the internal energy of a single photon—a concept so challenging it was long considered experimentally infeasible. By leveraging the remarkable thermal properties of pseudo-relativistic electrons in graphene, our proof-of-concept experiment demonstrates a strong calorimetric response to single near-infrared photons that is readily expandable to mid- and far-infrared regimes. Using a hybrid Josephson junction, the gate-tunable electron density, and a novel optical scanner in our cryogenic setup, we achieve single-photon detection with an intrinsic quantum efficiency of 87% at operating temperatures up to 1.2 K. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/g2hDkuA3 Thank you Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, U.S. Army DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory, National Research Foundation of Korea and Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT! #QuantumTech #SinglePhotonDetection #Graphene #Photonics #Cryogenics #QuantumEfficiency #Innovation #QuantumResearch #AdvancedMaterials #PhotonDetectors #arXiv

In collaboration with MIT Lincoln Laboratory, in a new paper now published in #PhysicslReviewApplied, David Starling et. al. present a cryogenically compatible, fully packaged quantum emitter module with diamond color-center quantum emitters designed for quantum memory applications. full paper: https://lnkd.in/gMVCJ9XC Achieving scalable, long-lived quantum memory systems with optical interfaces is critical to realizing a practical quantum network. Diamond color centers have emerged as promising candidates due to their optical coherence and ability to integrate with scalable systems. However, developing a stable and efficient emitter module for network integration has posed major engineering challenges. In this paper, we demonstrate a robust, network-compatible quantum emitter module designed to operate at cryogenic temperatures and connect seamlessly with photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and optical fibers. Our approach combines silicon-nitride (SiN) PICs with diamond microchiplets containing silicon-vacancy (Si-V⁻) color centers, employing precise alignment and bonding techniques. This scalable architecture enables the integration of multiple optical quantum memories into emerging quantum network testbeds, facilitating applications in distributed quantum sensing and processing. The development of this module addresses two crucial challenges for scalable quantum networking: cryogenic stability and compatibility with heterogeneous integration. We believe this work brings us closer to practical, large-scale quantum networks and paves the way for advanced quantum repeater functionalities. Thank you National Science Foundation (NSF), Air Force Research Laboratory and Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT for making this possible! #QuantumNetworking #QuantumMemory #QuantumEmitters #Photonics #DiamondColorCenters #ScalableQuantum

The article "Quantum Sensing with Optically Accessible Spin Defects in Van der Waals Layered Materials" by Fang et al. discusses recent advancements and potential applications of quantum sensing through optically active spin defects within 2D van der Waals (vdW) materials. The paper emphasizes how these defects, particularly in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), serve as powerful tools for detecting physical and chemical changes at the nanoscale, such as magnetic fields, temperature, and pressure. The authors highlight the advantages of vdW materials, like their high spatial resolution and compatibility with various heterostructures. They also outline challenges, including short spin coherence times and low quantum efficiencies compared to conventional materials like diamonds, and suggest further research into defect engineering, quantum-photonic integration, and proximity effects to enhance sensor capabilities. Applications span from material sciences to biological sensing, promising advances in areas like DNA sequencing and nanoscale magnetic field mapping. For more details, please continue reading the full article under the following link: https://lnkd.in/eJsGn5XT -------------------------------------------------------- Please consult also the Quantum Server Marketplace platform for the outsourcing of computational science R&D projects to external expert consultants through remote collaborations: https://lnkd.in/eRmYbj4x #materials #materialsscience #materialsengineering #computationalchemistry #modelling #chemistry #researchanddevelopment #research #MaterialsSquare #ComputationalChemistry #Tutorial #DFT #simulationsoftware #simulation

Incredible! SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory’s “electron camera” can reveal some of nature’s #ultrafast processes. Now, researchers across the lab have collaborated to achieve improvements to that tool to make its #molecular movies even sharper, keeping #SLAC at the forefront of pioneering tools for ultrafast #science. The Megaelectronvolt Ultrafast Electron Diffraction (MeV-UED) instrument at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at SLAC is a kind of high-speed “electron camera” that allows researchers to watch the inner workings of a chemical reaction or a material as it changes and reacts to its environment. https://lnkd.in/gaEWfeZN

🔬Discover the atom-level speed of #AttosecondSpectroscopy! This cutting-edge tech captures electron movements in real time, unveiling the secrets of molecular dynamics and advancing materials science. 🌐 🔗https://lnkd.in/e3uNnfte #UltrafastScience #MolecularDynamics