news 2023

Researchers have detected a new type of magnetism in an artificially produced material. The material becomes ferromagnetic through minimization of the kinetic energy of its electrons. For a magnet to stick to a fridge door, inside of it several physical effects need to work together perfectly. The magnetic moments of its electrons all point in the same direction, even if no external magnetic field forces them to do so.

A research collaboration has uncovered a surprising magnetic property of an exotic material that might lead to computers that need less than one-millionth of the energy required to switch a single bit. The world of materials science is constantly discovering or fabricating materials with exotic properties.

Is it possible to 3D print biodegradable sensors and displays? Researchers from Empa's Cellulose & Wood Materials laboratory have developed a cellulose-based material that allows just that. The mixture of hydroxpropyl cellulose with water, carbon nanotubes and cellulose nanofibrils changes color when heated or stretched - without the addition of any pigments.

This doesn't happen often: For his final project, an electronics apprentice at ETH Zurich produced a test device that will save physicists a lot of time in developing a novel microscope. His work has been published in a scientific journal. Integrated into the research group Apprentices also have to prepare a detailed schedule for their IPA.

Thanks to a breakthrough in the field of magnonics, researchers have sent and stored data using charge-free magnetic waves, rather than traditional electron flows. The discovery could solve the dilemma of energy-hungry computing technology in the age of big data. Like electronics or photonics, magnonics is an engineering subfield that aims to advance information technologies when it comes to speed, device architecture, and energy consumption.

An international team led by the University of Geneva has developed a quantum material in which the fabric of space inhabited by electrons can be curved on-demand. Artistic view. Curvature of the space fabric due to the superposition of spin and orbital states at the interface between lanthanum aluminate (LaAlO3) and strontium titanate (SrTiO3).

Researchers have come up with a new approach to electronics that involves engineering metastructures at the sub-wavelength scale. It could launch the next generation of ultra-fast devices for exchanging massive amounts of data, with applications in 6G communications and beyond. Until now, the ability to make electronic devices faster has come down to a simple principle: scaling down transistors and other components.