Lifeboat Foundation

Long-wavelength infrared (LWIR) imaging holds critical significance across many applications, from consumer electronics to defense and national security. It finds applications in night vision, remote sensing, and long-range imaging. However, the conventional refractive lenses employed in these imaging systems are bulky and heavy, which is undesirable for almost all applications. Compounding this issue is the fact that many LWIR refractive lenses are crafted from expensive and limited-supply materials, such as germanium.

Because of their differences from standard electrons, Dirac electrons are expected to add unprecedented electronic properties to materials. For example, they could be applied to electronic devices to perform computation and communication with extraordinary efficiency and low energy consumption.

To develop such technology, scientists must first understand the net properties and effects of Dirac electrons. But they generally coexist with standard electrons in materials, which prevents unambiguous observation and measurement.

In a recent study published in Materials Advances, Ryuhei Naito and colleagues discovered a method enabling selective observation of the Dirac electrons in materials. Using electron spin resonance, to directly observe unpaired electrons in materials to distinguish differences in character, the research group established a method to determine their scope of action in the materials and their energies.

Electrical engineers at Duke University have determined the theoretical fundamental limit for how much electromagnetic energy a transparent material with a given thickness can absorb. The finding will help engineers optimize devices designed to block certain frequencies of radiation while allowing others to pass through, for applications such as stealth or wireless communications.

A technique called time-and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (TR-ARPES) has emerged as a powerful tool, allowing researchers to explore the equilibrium and dynamical properties of quantum materials via light-matter interaction.

To combine two low-energy photons into one high-energy photon efficiently, the energy must be able to hop freely, but not too quickly, between randomly oriented molecules of a solid. This Kobe University discovery provides a much-needed design guideline for developing materials for more efficient PV cells, displays, or even anti-cancer therapies.

Light of different colors has different energies and is therefore useful for very different things. For the development of more efficient PV cells, OLED displays, or anti-cancer therapies, it is desirable to be able to upcycle two low-energy photons into a high-energy photon, and many researchers worldwide are working on materials for this up-conversion.

During this process, light is absorbed by the material, and its energy is handed around among the material’s molecules as a so-called “triplet exciton.” However, it was unclear what allows two triplet excitons to efficiently combine their energies into a different excited state of a single molecule that then emits a high-energy photon, and this knowledge gap has been a serious bottleneck in the development of such materials.

A new industrial-scale ‘sand battery’ has been announced for Finland, which packs 1 MW of power and a capacity of up to 100 MWh of thermal energy for use during those cold polar winters. The new battery will be about 10 times bigger than a pilot plant that’s been running since 2022.

The sand battery, developed by Polar Night Energy, is a clever concept. Basically, it’s a big steel silo of sand (or a similar solid material) that’s warmed up through a heat exchanger buried in the center, using excess electricity from the grid – say, that generated during a spike from renewable sources, when it’s cheap.

That energy can then be stored for months at a time, with reportedly very little loss, before being extracted as heat on demand. This could theoretically be converted back into electricity, although with some energy loss. But Polar Night says that the most efficient method is to just use the heat itself.

Researchers from China and Japan have discovered distinct characteristics of Earth’s lower mantle flow field. They investigated seismic anisotropy in the upper part of the lower mantle beneath the Philippine Sea Plate (PSP) and found that the ancient lower mantle flow field is still preserved there.

The study is published in Nature Geoscience.

The lower mantle is an important layer of the Earth and may play an important role in the evolution and material cycling of Earth’s interior. It is generally believed to be not only the final destination of subducted slabs, but also the birthplace of mantle plumes, which are two major styles in the evolution and material cycling of the Earth’s surface and interior. However, our knowledge of the characteristics of the flow field and geodynamics of the lower mantle is still deficient.

A nova outburst visible to the naked eye is expected to decorate the night sky this year, offering a rare skywatching opportunity.

The star system offering us this opportunity is known as T Coronae Borealis (T CrB). It’s located some 3,000 light-years away from Earth and consists of a red giant star and a white dwarf that orbit each other. When the white dwarf steals enough stellar material from its red giant companion, it ignites a brief flash of nuclear fusion on its surface, triggering what is known as a nova outburst.

A new haptic device mimics materials’ softness, from marshmallow to heart, conquering complex challenges surrounding robotics.