Scientists put a new spin on electrons

September 28th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Physicists at UC (University of California) San Diego have successfully created speedy integrated circuits with particles called "excitons" that operate at commercially cold temperatures, bringing the possibility of a new type of extremely fast computer based on excitons closer to reality. Their discovery follows the team's demonstration last summer of an integrated circuit-an assembly of transistors that is the building block for all electronic devices-capable of working at 1.5 degrees Kelvin above absolute zero.

September 3rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - An international team of researchers has designed a new graphite-based, magnetic nano-material that acts as a semiconductor and could help material scientists create the next generation of electronic devices like microchips. The nano-material was designed by a team of researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU); Peking University in Beijing, China; the Chinese Academy of Science in Shanghai, China; and Tohoku University in Sedai, Japan.

August 28th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of US and Japanese scientists has shown for the first time that the spectroscopic "fingerprint" of high-temperature superconductivity remains intact well above the super chilly temperatures at which these materials carry current with no resistance. This confirms that certain conditions necessary for superconductivity exist at the warmer temperatures that would make these materials practical for energy-saving applications - if scientists can figure out how to get the current flowing.

August 18th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new research from the University of Washington scientists has described an approach to organic electronics that allows transport of both positive and negative charges. Until now, however, circuits built with organic materials have allowed only one type of charge to move through them.

August 1st, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new research, scientists have explained how their discovery of graphane could make it easier for the production of tiny strips of graphene needed for electronic circuits. Graphane was discovered by Kostya Novoselov - a condensed-matter physicist from the Manchester University group.

June 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - U.S. scientists have confirmed that there exists a type of material that could one day provide dramatically faster, more efficient computer chips.

June 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists have discovered a 'magnetic superatom', which one day may be used to create molecular electronic devices for the next generation of faster computers with larger memory storage. Found by a team of Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) scientists, the 'magnetic superatom' is a stable cluster of atoms that can mimic different elements of the periodic table.

June 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), using high pressure, have created a material that does not expand when heated, and acts like a metal with an entirely different chemical composition. For creating this material, the scientists had to squeeze a typical metal alloy at pressures hundreds of thousands of times greater than normal atmospheric pressure.

June 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Physicists at the University of Texas at Austin, US, have created a superconducting sheet of lead only two atoms thick, the thinnest superconducting metal layer ever created. Superconductors are unique because they can maintain an electrical current indefinitely with no power source.

June 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A superconducting metal sheet with just two atoms thick has been developed by physicists at the University of Texas in Austin. The university said in a statement Monday that it was the thinnest superconducting metal layer ever created.

June 1st, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists at NASA have mapped chorus waves, a type of electromagnetic emission generated by electrons in Earth's radiation belt. Chorus waves play an important role in both accelerating and removing the energetic radiation belt electrons that can disrupt satellite electronics and disturb communications with ground-based operators.

May 15th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new analysis, scientists have directly measured the unusual energy spectrum of graphene, which adds new detail to help explain the extraordinary properties of the material. The analysis was done by researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

April 7th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Researchers at North Carolina University, US, have developed a device that controls electron spin at room temperature. The researchers have designed a magnetic semiconductor memory device, using GaMnN thin films, which utilizes both the charge and spin of electrons at room temperature.

April 4th, 2009 WASHINGTON - No need to panic if your hard disk is about to crash and you have not yet copied your favourite pictures and notes on a CD, for a new kind of computer memory may soon make 'back-up' a thing of the past. Racetrack memory, developed by Physicists at the University of Leeds and scientists at IBM Research's Zurich lab, may become the standard method of storing information in home computers.

March 21st, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists at the University at Buffalo Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes (SWCNTs), which are thousands of times stronger than metals, may one day replace metals in millions of electronic applications. Professor Cemal Basaran, the director of the Electronics Packaging Lab in UB's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, says that the four years of quantum mechanics calculations performed by him and his doctoral student Tarek Ragab have proved that higher current density in carbon nanotubes does not lead to electromigration and thermomigration.