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Category: computing – Page 153

Researchers develop approach to fabricate highly performing transistors based on 2D semiconductors

Two-dimensional (2D) semiconducting materials have distinct optoelectronic properties that could be advantageous for the development of ultra-thin and tunable electronic components. Despite their potential advantages over bulk semiconductors, optimally interfacing these materials with gate dielectrics has so far proved challenging, often resulting in interfacial traps that rapidly degrade the performance of transistors.

Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Soochow University and other institutes worldwide recently introduced an approach that could enable the fabrication of better performing transistors based on 2D semiconductors. Their proposed design, outlined in a paper in Nature Electronics, entails the use of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) dielectrics and metal gate electrodes with a high cohesive energy.

“Initially, we found that when we use platinum (Pt) as an anode, the h-BN stack is less likely to trigger breakdown,” Yaqing Shen, first author of the paper, told Tech Xplore. “Based on this finding, we designed our experiments and found that Pt/h-BN gate stacks show 500-times lower leakage current than Au/h-BN gate stacks and exhibit a high dielectric strength of at least 25 MV/cm. This gave us the idea of using CVD h-BN as a gate dielectric in 2D transistors.”

Unlocking the secrets of diamond: New insights into nitrogen-vacancy center formation

Research teams from Wuhan University and the China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) have revealed new insights into the formation mechanism of nitrogen-vacancies (NV) centers in type-Ib diamonds, a phenomenon critical to quantum sensing and computing advancements. Using a novel irradiation and annealing method, the teams demonstrated how controlled temperature and orientation can significantly increase the density and depth of NV centers, paving the way for new applications in biological imaging and quantum technologies.

Uncertainty Minimization and Pattern Recognition in Volvox Carteri and Volvox Aureus

Learning and a spectrum of other behavioral competencies allow organisms to rapidly adapt to dynamically changing environmental variations. The emerging field of diverse intelligence seeks to understand what systems, besides ones with complex brains, exhibit these capacities. Here, we tested predictions of a general computational framework based on the free energy principle in neuroscience but applied to aneural biological process as established previously, by demonstrating and manipulating pattern recognition in a simple aneural organism, the green algae Volvox. Our studies of the adaptive photoresponse in Volvox reveal that aneural organisms can distinguish between patterned and randomized inputs and indicate how this is achieved mechanistically.

Radical New Super-Tough Transistor Could Revolutionize Electronics

A newly developed transistor device has shown exceptional levels of resilience in tests, performing so well, in fact, that it promises to transform the electronics and gadgets we make use of each day.

These tiny toggles are essential in just about every modern day electronic device, involved in storing data and processing information in a binary ‘on’ or ‘off’ state, switching back and forth multiple times a second.

Thanks to its remarkable combination of speed, size, and resilience to wear, this latest design potentially represents a huge upgrade for consumer devices like phones and laptops, as well as the data centers that store all of our information in the cloud.

For the first time, researchers achieve long-distance quantum teleportation over 44 kilometers

Quantum Teleportation Over 44 Kilometers Achieved, Paving the Way for a Quantum Internet Revolution

A team from Fermilab and the University of Calgary has achieved long-distance quantum teleportation over 44 kilometers, setting a new record. This breakthrough, detailed in Physical Review, advances the goal of creating a quantum internet—where qubits can be shared instantly through entanglement. This new capability could revolutionize data storage, precision sensing, and computing. The research demonstrates the potential for scaling up quantum systems and contributes to developing a blueprint for a national quantum internet. The previous record was only six kilometers, highlighting the significant progress made.

Crystallized alternative DNA structure sheds light on insulin and diabetes

The the scientists developed can enable computational-based drug discovery to be used to target the i-motifs from the insulin gene, because when scientists know the specific 3D shape, they can design molecules digitally and model them to see whether they will fit.

Scientists can then develop new drugs using particular chemicals when they know which ones will fit the best—a process called rational design.

As the first crystal structure of this type, the researchers say it will also be useful as a model for other targets in the genome, besides the insulin gene, which form this shape of DNA.

How Subjective is Entropy Really?

Physics stack exchange has recently been debating the question of the subjectivity of entropy.

I recommend Andrew Steane answer.

I’m a computer scientist doing some research that touches on basic concepts in statistical mechanics: macrostate, microstate and entropy. The way I’m currently conceiving of it is that the microstate includes all the information to perfectly the describe the state of a system, the macrostate provides some of the information, allowing you to narrow down the possibilities to a subset of states and a distribution over them, and the entropy roughly says how much information is still missing after you specify the macrostate.

From various places online, including this SE thread, I read that the choice of what to put in the macro-description depends on what state variables one is interested in. That SE answer seems to downplay the significance of this, but from my uninformed outsider perspective it seems like a big deal. I could, for example, make the entropy of any system zero if I choose the state variables to be the position and momentum of every particle (let’s just stick to the classical paradigm for now).

From the examples I’ve seen, there are only a few state variables such as temperature and pressure that are even considered, but could/does it ever happen that two different experimenters on the same system have different ‘opinions’ on what the state variables should be, and so calculate totally different values for entropy? If not, is there a satisfying reason why the choice of state variables is not as subjective as it appears?