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Category: materials

Engineers develop a magnetic transistor for more energy-efficient electronics

Transistors, the building blocks of modern electronics, are typically made of silicon. Because it’s a semiconductor, this material can control the flow of electricity in a circuit. But silicon has fundamental physical limits that restrict how compact and energy-efficient a transistor can be.

MIT researchers have now replaced silicon with a magnetic semiconductor, creating a magnetic transistor that could enable smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient circuits. The material’s magnetism strongly influences its electronic behavior, leading to more efficient control of the flow of electricity.

The team used a novel magnetic material and an optimization process that reduces the material’s defects, which boosts the transistor’s performance.

MIT engineers develop a magnetic transistor for more energy-efficient electronics

Transistors, the building blocks of modern electronics, are typically made of silicon. Because it’s a semiconductor, this material can control the flow of electricity in a circuit. But silicon has fundamental physical limits that restrict how compact and energy-efficient a transistor can be.

MIT researchers have now replaced silicon with a magnetic semiconductor, creating a magnetic transistor that could enable smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient circuits. The material’s magnetism strongly influences its electronic behavior, leading to more efficient control of the flow of electricity.

The team used a novel magnetic material and an optimization process that reduces the material’s defects, which boosts the transistor’s performance.

Rare-earth tritellurides reveal a hidden ferroaxial order of electronic origin

The discovery of “hidden orders,” organization patterns in materials that cannot be detected using conventional measurement tools, can yield valuable insight, which can in turn support the design of new materials with advantageous properties and characteristics. The hidden orders that condensed matter physicists hope to uncover lie within so-called charge density waves (CDWs).

CDWs are periodic wave-like modulations of the electronic charge inside a crystal. CDWs in rare-earth tellurides, compounds containing tellurium and other rare-earth elements, have been found to sometimes give rise to unusual physical phenomena that are not observed in the absence of these wave-like states of matter.

Researchers at Boston College, Cornell University and other institutes recently observed a ferroaxial order in rare-earth tellurides that appears to originate from a combination of coupled orbital and charge patterns.

Researchers develop colorized X-ray imaging for clearer material and tissue analysis

When German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays in the late 1800s while experimenting with cathode ray tubes, it was a breakthrough that transformed science and medicine. So much so that the basic concept remains in use today. But a team of researchers at Sandia National Laboratories believes they’ve found a better way, harnessing different metals and the colors of light they emit.

“It’s called colorized hyperspectral X-ray imaging with multi-metal targets, or CHXI MMT for short,” said project lead Edward Jimenez, an optical engineer. Jimenez has been working with materials scientist Noelle Collins and electronics engineer Courtney Sovinec to create X-rays of the future.

“With this new technology, we are essentially going from the old way, which is black and white, to a whole new colored world where we can better identify materials and defects of interest,” Collins said.

New evidence points to two distinct Australian tektite groups with different origins

Throughout the planet, there are only a handful of known tektite strewn fields, which are large swaths of land where natural glass (tektite) was strewn about after forming from terrestrial material and being ejected from a meteorite impact. The tektite glass can be ejected extremely long distances, placing strewn fields far from their origins.

Color-changing organogel stretches 46 times its size and self-heals

Scientists from Taiwan have developed a new material that can stretch up to 4,600% of its original length before breaking. Even if it does break, gently pressing the pieces together at room temperature allows it to heal, fully restoring its shape and stretchability within 10 minutes.

The sticky and stretchy polyurethane (PU) organogels were designed by combining covalently linked (CNCs) and modified mechanically interlocked molecules (MIMs) that act as artificial molecular muscles.

The muscles make the gel sensitive to external forces such as stretching or heat, where its color changes from orange to blue based on whether the material is at rest or stimulated. Thanks to these unique properties, the gels hold great promise for next-generation technologies—from flexible electronic skins and soft robots to anti-counterfeiting solutions.

Innovative microscope captures large, high-resolution images of curved samples in single snapshot

Researchers have developed a new type of microscope that can acquire extremely large, high-resolution pictures of non-flat objects in a single snapshot. This innovation could speed up research and medical diagnostics or be useful in quality inspection applications.

“Although traditional microscopes assume the sample is perfectly flat, real-life samples such as tissue sections, plant samples or flexible materials may be curved, tilted or uneven,” said research team leader Roarke Horstmeyer from Duke University.

“With our approach, it’s possible to adjust the focus across the sample, so that everything remains in focus even if the sample surface isn’t flat, while avoiding slow scanning or expensive special lenses.”

Scientists Discover Ordinary Ice Has Extraordinary Electrical Properties

Ice can generate electricity when bent, a process called flexoelectricity. The discovery connects to lightning formation and future device applications. Ice is among the most common materials on Earth, covering glaciers, mountain ranges, and the polar regions. Despite its familiarity, ongoing res

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