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Highlights

Nov 20, 2014
Princeton University

Observation of Majorana fermions in a ferromagnetic chains on a superconductor

Stevan Nadj-Perge, Ilya K. Drozdov, Jian Li, Hua Chen, Sangjun Jeon, Jungpil Seo, Allan H. MacDonald, B. Andrei Bernevig, and Ali Yazdani.

Topological superconductors are a distinct form of matter that is predicted to host boundary Majorana fermions. These quasi-particles are the emergent condensed matter analogs of the putative elementary spin-1/2 particles originally proposed by Ettore Majorana in the 1930’s with the intriguing property of being their own anti-particles. The search for Majorana quasi-particle bound states in condensed matter systems is motivated in part by their potential use as topological qubits to perform fault-tolerant computation aided by their
Nov 13, 2014

Immucor Acquires Sentilus for Microarray-Based Diagnostics Technology

Immucor, Inc., a global leader in transfusion and transplantation diagnostics, has acquired Sentilus, Inc., a company focused on developing a novel, inkjet-printed antibody microarray-based technology called Femtoarrays™.
Nov 13, 2014

Shape-Shifting Liquid Metal Becomes a Reality

Mohammad Rashed Khan, Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695 Collin B. Eaker, Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695 Edmond F. Bowden, Department of Chemistry, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695 Michael D. Dickey, Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695

Terminator 2 is widely remembered for its metal shape-shifting villain. Impervious to bullets, explosives, and fire, theT-1000 robot was capable of changing shape at will. Researchers at the North Carolina State University have taken a step towards making science fiction a reality by developing a technique for controlling the surface tension of liquid metals using very low voltages. This technology paves the way for shape-reconfigurable metal components in electronic, electromagnetic, and microfluidic devices.
Sep 10, 2014

An Implicit Solvent Ionic Strength (ISIS) Method to Model Polyelectrolyte Systems with Dissipative Particle Dynamics

Nan K. Li, William H. Fuss and Yaroslava G. Yingling; all of North Carolina State University

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a novel and versatile modeling strategy to simulate polyelectrolyte systems. The model has applications for creating new materials as well as for studying polyelectrolytes, including DNA and RNA.
Jul 24, 2014
Yale University

Heterogeneously integrated ferroelectric optical modulator on silicon with high Pockels’ coefficient

H. Tang, F. Walker, C. Ahn (Yale University)

The collaboration among Hong Tang, Charles Ahn, and Fred Walker’s groups recently realized a new type of electro-optic modulator based on epitaxial ferroelectric BaTiO3 on silicon. A very high Pockels’ coefficient, up to 213 pm/V, was demonstrated, a record value that is more than six times larger than found in commercial optical modulators based on lithium niobate. The monolithically integrated BaTiO3 optical modulators show modulation bandwidth in the gigahertz regime, which is promising for broadband applications.
Jun 30, 2014
Princeton University

Observation of a Dissipation-Induced Classical to Quantum Transition

J. Raftery, D. Sadri, S. Schmidt, H. E. Tureci, A. A. Houck

In this work, we study a novel dynamical phase transition of light, where photon-photon interactions and dissipation into the environment are key aspects of the physics. Together they give rise to a transition from a region of classical behavior into a regime where quantum effects dominate. The transition was observed in a Jaynes-Cummings dimer built from two coupled microwave cavities (shown in the upper picture. In this system, photons repel each other due to the presence of nearby superconducting