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When frozen under extreme pressures and temperatures, ice takes on a range of complex crystalline structures. Many of the properties and behaviors of these exotic ices remain mysterious, but researchers recently analyzed how water molecules interact with one another in three types of ice and found the interactions depended strongly on the orientation of the molecules and the overall structure of the ice. The team describes their results in The Journal of Chemical Physics.

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Researchers have begun to use metamaterials, engineered composites that have unique properties not found in nature, to enhance the absorption rates of plasmonic absorbers, and a team in Japan used a trilayered metamaterial to develop a wavelength-selective plasmonic metamaterial absorber on top of a spintronic device to enhance the generation of spin currents from the heat produced in the mid-infrared regime. The research is reported this week in APL Photonics.

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Many asymmetric absorbers are currently based on a single-port system, where sound enters one side and is absorbed before a rigid wall. In this design, however, light and air are unable to pass through the system. But new research shows that asymmetric absorption can be realized within a straight transparent waveguide. The waveguide allows light transmission and air flow through the absorber, and is described this week in Applied Physics Letters.

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While some studies have supported the idea that the walls of the aorta are piezoelectric or ferroelectric, the most recent research finds no evidence of these properties. Researchers investigated by testing samples of pig aorta using a traditional setup, known as Sawyer-Tower, to detect ferroelectricity. Their experiments suggest the aorta has no special properties, and instead acts as a standard dielectric material that does not conduct current. They report their work in Applied Physics Letters.

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As microchips become smaller and faster, the shrinking size of their copper interconnects leads to increased electrical resistivity at the nanoscale. Finding a solution to this technical bottleneck is a problem for the semiconductor industry; one possibility involves reducing the resistivity size effect by altering the crystalline orientation of interconnect materials. Researchers conducted electron transport measurements in epitaxial single-crystal layers of tungsten as one potential solution. The work is published in this week’s Journal of Applied Physics.

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To reduce the burden of anemia, health officials need a better picture of the disease's global impact, an understanding made viable by a portable and affordable way to analyze blood. Researchers at the University of Washington developed a device smaller than a toaster that can detect the level of hemoglobin in whole blood samples using optical absorbance. The work is published this week in AIP Advances.

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Atrial fibrillation is the most prevalent form of cardiac arrhythmia, affecting up to 6 million people in the U.S. alone. Common treatments for severe forms of the erratic beating phenomenon are controversial, and guided by detection methods that are not yet standardized or fully refined. But research from a group of cross-disciplinary scientists, published this week in the journal Chaos, offers a computational approach to understanding the important factors involved in measuring cardiac excitation waves.

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The stability of nanobubbles is well understood, but the mechanisms causing their eventual destabilization are still in question. Using molecular dynamics simulations, researchers in China explored the effect of surfactants -- components that lower surface tension -- on the stabilization of nanobubbles. They report their findings on the surprising mechanisms of destabilization for both soluble and insoluble surfactants this week in Applied Physics Letters.

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Nano-scale modeling of piezoelectric energy harvester offers a new nano-scale sensor design and demonstrates important design elements for efficient implementation.

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The potential for photon entanglement in quantum computing and communications has been known for decades. One issue impeding immediate application is that many photon entanglement platforms do not operate within the range used by most forms of telecommunication. Researchers have started to unravel the mysteries of entangled photons, demonstrating a new nanoscale technique that uses semiconductor quantum dots to bend photons to the wavelengths used by today’s popular C-band standards. They report their work in Applied Physics Letters.

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Researchers at Osaka University in Japan are working to exploit stochastic resonance to enhance signal transmission for a new generation of devices, using single-walled carbon nanotubes. They created a summing network SR device that detects subthreshold signals, fabricated to include a self-noise component. The researchers report their findings this week in the journal Applied Physics Letters.

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When a nitrogen atom is next to the space vacated by a carbon atom, it forms what is called a nitrogen-vacancy center. Now, researchers have shown how they can create more NV centers, which makes sensing magnetic fields easier, using a relatively simple method that can be done in many labs. They describe their results this week in Applied Physics Letters.

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Whispering gallery mode resonators rely on a phenomenon similar to an effect observed in circular galleries, and the same phenomenon applies to light. When light is stored in ring-shaped or spherical active resonators, the waves superimpose in such a way that it can result in laser light. This week in APL Photonics, investigators report a new type of dye-doped WGM micro-laser that produces light with tunable wavelengths.

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Fluorescence microscopy gives researchers power to illuminate the tiniest structures and capture the real-time activities of cells by tagging biological molecules with a rainbow of fluorescent dyes. Researchers have developed a system that enables scientists to rapidly image fluorescent cells grown inside the chip using a CMOS image sensor, the same technology found in the camera of a smartphone. The new system, described this week in AIP Advances, has numerous potential uses in biomedical research.

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Physicist Gabriel Mindlin has been looking at the phenomena from what is one of the most unifying and potentially enlightening perspectives of the issue: the dynamical physics of birds’ vocal organs. In his work, published this week in the journal Chaos, he explores the role of fundamental physics properties in the acoustic complexity of birdsong, and the relationship they have with neural instructions for their production.

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Today, electrical bistable devices are the foundation of digital electronics, but the bandwidth of these electronic computers is limited by the signal delay of time constants important to electronic logic operations. In an attempt to mitigate these problems, scientists have considered the development of an optical digital computer. This week, in the Journal of Applied Physics, researchers present their findings regarding the optical and electrical bistability of a single transistor operated at room temperature.

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An international group of researchers have put a literal twist on this challenge, demonstrating a new nanoscale optomechanical resonator that can detect torsional motion at near state-of-the-art sensitivity. Their resonator, into which they couple light, also demonstrates torsional frequency mixing, a novel ability to impact optical energies using mechanical motions.

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Helping bacteria become more efficient when breaking down fibrous plant waste into biofuel could result in more affordable biofuels for our gas tanks and sustainable products such as bioplastics. One way to achieve this goal is to re-engineer the bacterial enzyme complexes, called cellulosomes, which serve as catalysts in the degradation process. Researchers discuss one method to produce cellulosomes in The Journal of Chemical Physics.

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Non-equilibrium atmospheric pressure plasma can help heal wounds, destroy cancer cells and kill harmful bacteria. The jets of plasma that doctors might use, however, often become turbulent with the direction and velocity changing dramatically. Now, researchers have found this turbulence likely emerges from heat-induced sound waves generated at the plasma electrodes. This new insight is critical for more consistent and effective medical therapies. The researchers discuss their work in this week’s Applied Physics Letters.

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Over the last 25 years, the world has seen an increased dependency on wind energy that promises to continue growing. This has created an ever-evolving process to develop a method that can accurately assess a region’s wind energy potential. The European Union and other countries have begun development of the New European Wind Atlas, the details of which a Danish researcher discusses in this week’s Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy.

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Relatively little is known about the effects of extreme negative pressure on water molecules. Exploring a significant region of negative pressure through molecular dynamic simulations, researchers have now theoretically discovered a new family of ice phases. Called aeroices, these ices have the lowest density of all known ice crystals. The researchers report their findings this week in The Journal of Chemical Physics.

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Northern China’s roadsides are peppered with deciduous phoenix trees, producing an abundance of fallen leaves in autumn. These leaves are generally burned in the colder season, exacerbating the country’s air pollution problem. Investigators in Shandong, China, recently discovered a new method to convert this organic waste matter into a porous carbon material that can be used to produce high-tech electronics. The advance is reported in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy.

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There might be a new and improved way to rid contaminated soil of toxins and pollutants: zap it with lasers. By directly breaking down pollutants, researchers say, high-powered lasers can now be more efficient and cheaper than conventional decontamination techniques. They have shown how such a laser system could work, describing the proof-of-principle results this week in the Journal of Applied Physics.

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Transition metal silicides are promising for future developments in electronic devices, but fundamental aspects of the chemical bonding between their transition metal atoms and silicon remain poorly understood. One of the most important, but poorly known, properties is the strength of these chemical bonds -- the thermochemical bond dissociation energy. Researchers from the University of Utah have investigated this, and in this week’s The Journal of Chemical Physics, they present their findings for a number of specific compounds.

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With their remarkable electrical and optical properties, along with biocompatibility, photostability and chemical stability, gold nanoclusters are gaining a foothold in a number of research areas, particularly in biosensing and biolabeling. An international research team has now shown that the fluorescence is an intrinsic property of the gold nanoparticles themselves. The researchers used Au20, gold nanoparticles with a tetrahedral structure. Their findings were reported this week in The Journal of Chemical Physics.

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Within the study of fluid dynamics, the effect of curved, convex or compliant surfaces on the dynamics of impacting drops is still relatively unknown, despite its extreme relevance to modern-day applications, such as 3-D ink-jet printing and the delivery of pesticides on leaves. Researchers in the United Kingdom have now detailed these effects by investigating the impact of water droplets on spherical soft surfaces. They present their research in this week’s Physics of Fluids.

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Solar panels have tremendous potential to provide affordable renewable energy, but many people see traditional black and blue panels as an eyesore. Architects, homeowners and city planners may be more open to the technology if they could install colorful, efficient solar panels, and a new study, published this week in Applied Physics Letters, brings us one step closer. Researchers have developed a method for imprinting existing solar panels with silicon nanopatterns that scatter green light back toward an observer.

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Hall thrusters are used in earth-orbiting satellites and show promise to propel robotic spacecraft long distances, and the plasma ejected from the exhaust end of the thruster can deliver great speeds. Cylindrically-shaped Hall thrusters lend themselves to miniaturization and have a smaller surface-to-volume ratio that prevents erosion of the thruster channel. Investigators in China have developed a new design for CHTs that significantly increases thrust; they report their work in this week’s Physics of Plasmas.

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Investigators at the University of Colorado, Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a new sensor array-based instrument that offers ultra-low noise detection of small amounts of energy for a number of applications. The new device allows for the collection of data from many more detectors than was previously possible.

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It is known that the sun’s corona is roughly 100 times hotter than its photosphere -- the sun’s visible layer. The reason for this mysterious heating of the solar coronal plasma, however, is not yet entirely understood. A research team in India has developed a set of numerical computations to shed light on this phenomenon, and present this week in Physics of Plasmas, analysis examining the role of chaotic magnetic fields in potential heating mechanisms.

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A new advance, published this week in the journal Biomicrofluidics, now offers the ability to construct vascularized tissue and mimic in vivo drug administration in 3-D bioprinted liver tissue. A truly international collaboration, with researchers affiliated with Chile, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Korea and the U.S., developed this relatively simple liver model to offer a more accurate system for drug toxicity testing.

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Small vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) possess the ability to effectively operate in the presence of high turbulent flow, which makes them ideal energy harvesting devices in urban and suburban environments. In this week’s Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, researchers present results indicating that an optimally designed VAWT system can financially compete with fossil-fuel based power plants in urban and suburban areas, and even spearhead the development of a net-zero energy building or city.

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Since the seminal work of Paul Flory, researchers have developed various formulas for calculating distance between the ends of a curved polymer. However, these formulas have typically failed to consider the stretchiness of the molecule. In a new study, published this week in The Journal of Chemical Physics, scientists have derived a formula to determine the end-to-end distance of a semiflexible polymer, including DNA or RNA, while taking into account how much the polymer stretches.

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Recent developments in atomic-force microscopy have enabled researchers to apply mechanical forces to individual molecules to induce chemical reactions. A research team from Spain and Germany has now developed a first-of-its-kind algorithm that determines the minimal force it takes to reach the optimal bond breaking point (BBP) at the molecular level to mechanically induce a chemical reaction. They report their findings this week in The Journal of Chemical Physics.

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Flux-closure domain structures are microscopic topological phenomena found in ferroelectric thin films that feature distinct electric polarization properties. These closed-loop domains have garnered attention among researchers studying new ferroelectric devices, and in the development of thin films for such devices, researchers have thought that contact with commonly used oxide electrodes limits FCD formation. However, a group of researchers in China has shown otherwise. They report their work in this week’s Applied Physics Letters.

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With numerous installations of solar power systems for residential homes at or near the distribution site, there is a challenge to balance supply and demand to make these intermittent energy sources reliable. Demand response is one promising way to increase operational flexibility and energy efficiency, and researchers in Malaysia have incorporated DR scenarios in case studies based on 100 urban low-voltage network samples to learn more. They report their findings in this week’s Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy.

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Placing a magnet on your refrigerator might hold up your calendar, but researchers from India’s Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics found that placing one outside a plasma chamber causes a localized, fireball-like structure. This work may help understand plasma dynamics under these north-south, or dipolar, magnetic fields. They present their results this week in the journal Physics of Plasmas, from AIP Publishing.

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Imagine a sensor so sensitive it can detect changes in the proton concentration of a single protein, within a single cell. This level of insight would reveal elusive quantum-scale dynamics of that protein’s function, potentially even in real time, but demands a sensor with controllable features at a similar scale. Thanks to a new fabrication technique, quantum sensing abilities are now approaching this scale of precision. As they report this week in Applied Physics Letters, researchers have reproducibly formed an aligned ensemble of quantum sensors called nitrogen vacancy centers, just nanometers from its substrate’s surface.

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Skyrmions are a kind of nanomagnet, comprised of a spin-correlated ensemble of electrons acting as a topological magnet on certain microscopic surfaces. The precise properties, like spin orientation, of such nanomagnets can store information. But how might you go about moving or manipulating these nanomagnets at will to store the data you want? New research demonstrates such read/write ability using bursts of electrons, encoding topological energy structures robustly enough for potential data storage applications. The researchers report their work this week in Applied Physics Letters.

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A research team led by New York University professor Maurizio Porfiri put forth a robotics-based study to control information flow in predator-prey interactions, as well as test the validity of transfer entropy when attempting to understand causal influences of the system. They report their findings this week in the journal Chaos, from AIP Publishing.

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A feature article published this afternoon in the new, online nonprofit journalism news outlet Bioengineering Today explores the global, billion-dollar industry of wearable fitness and medical technologies, which stands at the crossroads of computing, consumer electronics, exercise culture and human health.

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Charged surfaces submerged in an electrolyte solution can sometimes become oppositely charged. This nonintuitive phenomenon happens when excess counter ions adsorb to the surface. In certain situations, theory predicts that a highly charged surface not only changes sign, but can become more highly charged than the original surface. This is known as giant charge reversal, but remains controversial and has never been observed experimentally. Results reported this week in The Journal of Chemical Physics confirm giant charge reversal for a surface in contact with a trivalent electrolyte solution.

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Sometimes, liquid drops don't drop. Instead, they climb. Using computer simulations, researchers have now shown how to induce droplets to climb stairs all by themselves. This stair-climbing behavior could be useful in everything from water treatment and new lab-on-a-chip microfluidic devices, to biochemical processing and medical diagnostic tools. The researchers describe their findings this week in the journal Physics of Fluids.

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The concept of a simple technique to remove thin layers from otherwise thick, rigid semiconductor crystals has been actively explored for years. In a significant advance, a research group from IBM successfully applied their new “controlled spalling” layer transfer technique to gallium nitride (GaN) crystals, a prevalent semiconductor material, and created a pathway for producing many layers from a single substrate. They report their work in this week’s Journal of Applied Physics.

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Spray cooling is one of the most promising methods for cooling high heat flow electronics. Two-phase spray cooling, in particular, has been shown to cool heat fluxes orders of magnitude higher than traditional cooling methods but the complex physics of it demands deeper understanding. To tackle this, researchers investigated the basic physics of droplet impingement using a computational approach called the lattice-Botzmann method; they report their work in this week’s Physics of Fluids.

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On this week’s Applied Physics Letters, researchers show that unlike human hair, metal wires or synthetic fibers, spider silk partially yields when twisted. This property quickly dissipates the energy that would otherwise send an excited spider spinning on the end of its silk. A greater understanding of how spider silk resists spinning could lead to biomimetic fibers that mimic these properties for potential uses in violin strings, helicopter rescue ladders and parachute cords.

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The American Institute of Physics (AIP) announced today that its Board of Directors has selected information systems expert John Regazzi, Ph.D., as its new chair. He begins his appointment September 10, 2017 and will preside at the board meeting in November.

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A international team of researchers has discovered magnetic vortex-antivortex pairs arising from correlated electron spins in a newly engineered trilayer material. The discovery could advance memory cells and points to the potential development of 3-D magnetic logic circuits. They discuss their work in this week’s Applied Physics Letters.

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The American Institute of Physics and AIP Publishing are pleased to announce the launch of Scilight -- brief written summaries of research articles emphasizing the significance of a contribution to a field of science. Scilight benefits both journal authors and the scientific community by giving authors another way to promote their research and a place for scientists and science enthusiasts to quickly and easily scan the latest, important breakthroughs in the world of physics.

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Mobile phones and other wireless devices have become central features of life around the globe. It is crucial to the design and deployment of these devices that they have accurate and traceable measurements for electric fields and radiated power. Until recently, however, it was not possible to build self-calibrating probes that could generate independent and absolute measurements of these electric field values. To address this problem, researchers have developed a new method to measure electric fields and a new probe to carry out such measurements. They share their work this week in the Journal of Applied Physics.