Global Energy Awards

A strange new quantum state appears when atoms get “frustrated” Physicists at UC Santa Barbara have uncovered a new way to manipulate unusual magnetic states by exploiting “frustration” inside a crystal’s atomic structure. The team discovered a rare system where two different kinds of frustration—magnetic and electronic bond frustration—coexist and interact. By coupling these competing effects, researchers may be able to control exotic quantum states, potentially unlocking new ways to manipulate entangled spins for future quantum technologies. Scientists discovered a rare material where two competing types of atomic frustration interact, creating unusual magnetic states. Controlling this delicate balance could open new ways to manipulate quantum states important for future quantum technologies. Credit: AI/ScienceDaily.com In the laboratory of UC Santa Barbara materials scientist Stephen Wilson, researchers are investigating the physics behind unusual states of matter while designing ma...

 Scientists unlock a powerful new way to turn sunlight into fuel Scientists have developed a powerful new computational method that could accelerate the search for next-generation materials capable of turning sunlight into useful chemical energy. The work focuses on polyheptazine imides, a promising class of carbon nitride materials that absorb visible light and can drive reactions such as hydrogen production, carbon dioxide conversion, and hydrogen peroxide synthesis. By analyzing how 53 different metal ions influence the structure and electronic behavior of these materials, researchers created a framework that predicts which combinations will perform best. Three layers of a silver ion-doped polyheptazine imide polymeric network. In this example, the metal ions are located between the layers, inducing lattice expansion and structural distortion. However, the polymeric backbone remains intact. Only the pore geometry changes.  Photocatalysis offers a promising way to convert th...

 Record-breaking photodetector captures light in just 125 picoseconds A new ultrathin photodetector from Duke University can sense light across the entire electromagnetic spectrum and generate a signal in just 125 picoseconds, making it the fastest pyroelectric detector ever built. The breakthrough could power next-generation multispectral cameras used in medicine, agriculture, and space-based sensing. An artistic rendition of how the new ultrafast metasurface works. Mikkelsen’s lab’s approach, called a “metasurface,” uses precisely tailored silver nanocubes placed on a transparent film only 10 nanometers above a thin layer of gold. When light strikes the surface of a nanocube, it excites the silver’s electrons, trapping the light’s energy through a phenomenon known as plasmonics—but only at a specific frequency controlled by the nanocubes’ sizes and spacings. Credit: Duke University Electrical engineers at Duke University have created the fastest pyroelectric photodetector ever de...

 This paper-thin chip turns invisible light into a steerable beam Researchers have built a paper-thin chip that converts infrared light into visible light and directs it precisely, all without mechanical motion. The design overcomes a long-standing efficiency-versus-control problem in light-shaping materials. This opens the door to tiny, highly efficient light sources integrated directly onto chips. A rendering of the metasurface chip in action. When hit with an infrared laser, the microscopic chip converts the incoming light to a higher frequency and sends it out as a narrow beam that can be precisely directed.  Creating extremely small devices that can precisely guide and control light is a key challenge for many emerging technologies. Scientists at the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC) have now made an important advance by developing a metasurface that can convert invisible infrared light into visible light and direct it in specific di...

Scientists unlock a 100-year-old quantum secret to supercharge solar power Scientists at the University of Cambridge have uncovered a surprising quantum effect inside an organic material, something once thought impossible outside metals. The team found that a special molecule can turn light into electricity with incredible efficiency, using a hidden quantum behavior unseen in such materials before. This breakthrough could lead to simpler, lighter, and cheaper solar panels. Researchers discovered a new way organic molecules can mimic the quantum mechanics of inorganic materials, turning light into electricity with extraordinary efficiency. This finding could revolutionize solar power by allowing single-material, ultra-light panels.  In a breakthrough that connects modern science with ideas first explored a century ago, researchers have witnessed a surprising phenomenon once thought possible only in inorganic metal oxides appearing inside a glowing organic semiconductor molecule. Led...

 How a Molecule's Twist Spins Electrons! 🌀 Scientists have found a way to significantly boost “blue energy,” which generates electricity from the mixing of saltwater and freshwater. By coating nanopores with lipid molecules that create a friction-reducing water layer, they enabled ions to pass through much more efficiently while keeping the process highly selective. Their prototype membrane produced about two to three times more power than current technologies. The discovery could help bring osmotic energy closer to becoming a practical renewable power source. A new advance in “blue energy” could turn the natural mixing of seawater and freshwater into a much more powerful source of renewable electricity. Credit: AI/ScienceDaily.com Osmotic energy, often referred to as blue energy, is an emerging method for producing renewable electricity by harnessing the natural mixing of saltwater and freshwater. When these two types of water meet, ions from the saltwater move through a speciali...

Chemical shifts help track molecules breaking apart in real time When molecules fall apart, their electric charge doesn't stay put—it rearranges as bonds stretch and break. An international team of scientists has now tracked these ultrafast changes in the small molecule fluoromethane (CH₃F). It was the first time that the Small Quantum Systems (SQS) instrument at European XFEL could deliver detailed insights into transient states during chemical reactions. These intermediate states, that only exist temporarily while the reaction is ongoing, are often the key drivers of chemistry and therefore crucial to understand. Over the long term, that kind of insight can support progress in areas such as atmospheric science (where sunlight-driven reactions and fragmentation pathways shape air chemistry), as well as the study of complex molecular systems including biomolecules and proteins, where local excitation and charge transfer can trigger structural change. In the experiment, the research...

 Physicists finally see strange magnetic vortices predicted 50 years ago A team of physicists has experimentally confirmed a long-predicted sequence of exotic magnetic phases in an atomically thin material. When cooled, the material forms tiny magnetic vortices before transitioning into a second ordered magnetic state—exactly as predicted by a famous theoretical model from the 1970s. Observing both phases together for the first time validates key ideas about how magnetism behaves in two dimensions. The findings could help inspire ultracompact technologies built on nanoscale magnetic control. When researchers at UT Austin coaxed an atomically thin sheet of nickel phosphorus trisulfide to enter a special magnetic phase, called the BKT phase, the magnetic orientations of individual atoms formed swirling patterns called vortices.  Materials can behave in surprising ways when they are thinned down layer by layer until they are only a single atom thick. In a new study published in N...

 IBM and University Researchers Create a Never-Before-Seen Molecule and Prove its Exotic Nature with Quantum Computing An international team of scientists from IBM (NYSE: IBM), The University of Manchester, Oxford University, ETH Zurich, EPFL and the University of Regensburg have created and characterized a molecule unlike any previously known — one whose electrons travel through its structure in a corkscrew-like pattern that fundamentally alters its chemical behavior. Published today in Science, it is the first experimental observation of a half-Möbius electronic topology in a single molecule. To the scientists’ knowledge, a molecule with such topology has never before been synthesized, observed, or even formally predicted. Understanding this molecule’s behavior at the electronic structure level required something equally fundamental: a high fidelity quantum computing simulation. The discovery advances science on two fronts. For chemistry, it demonstrates that electronic topology ...

 Molecular 'catapult' fires electrons at the limits of physics Electrons can be "kicked across" solar materials at almost the fastest speed nature allows, scientists have discovered, challenging long-held theories about how solar energy systems work. The finding could help researchers design more efficient ways of harvesting sunlight and converting it into electricity. The research is published in Nature Communications. In experiments capturing events lasting just 18 femtoseconds—less than 20 quadrillionths of a second—researchers at the University of Cambridge observed charge separation happening within a single molecular vibration. "We deliberately designed a system that—according to conventional theory—should not have transferred charge this fast," said Dr. Pratyush Ghosh, Research Fellow, at St John's College, Cambridge, and first author of the study. "By conventional design rules, this system should have been slow, and that's what makes the...

 Superfluids emerge in 2D moire crystal formed from time, study predicts An AI-enhanced conceptual illustration depicting ultracold atoms being 'twisted' by multiple laser pulses, offering a visual representation of our core idea: using periodic driving to engineer moiré patterns in time. Credit: Liang, Zhang & Zhang. (PRL, 2026). Conventional crystals are materials in which atoms arrange themselves in repeating spatial patterns. Time crystals, on the other hand, are phases of matter characterized by repeating motions over time without constantly heating up, breaking a physical rule known as time-translation symmetry. Researchers at East China Normal University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University recently predicted the formation of a new type of time crystal, dubbed a two-dimensional (2D) moiré time crystal. This crystal was theorized to emerge when periodic perturbations (i.e., regular, repeated disturbances) are applied to ultracold atoms held in a smooth, continuous trap, ...

Setting the scene for a quantum marketplace: where quantum business is up to and how it might unfold As quantum computing makes its first forays from the lab to the real world, are the latest claims mere hype causing a bubble that will burst before the field finds its feet? Or are investors and researchers right to be enthusiastic about this burgeoning technological revolution? Philip Ball investigates the successes and pitfalls of commercializing quantum information technology When the world’s “first quantum computer” hit the market in 2015, the response was decidedly mixed. Perhaps it’s not surprising that demand for the machine was not exactly clamorous, given its price tag of $10m. But some accused the makers, the quantum-computing company D-Wave Systems from Burnaby in Canada, of hyping the abilities of its machine – which was not even unanimously agreed to be making use of quantum principles at all. It wasn’t an auspicious start to the commercialization of quantum information...

 Congo basin blackwater lakes are releasing ancient carbon into the atmosphere Deep in the Congo Basin, vast peatlands quietly store enormous amounts of Earth’s carbon — but new research suggests this ancient vault may be leaking. Scientists studying Africa’s largest blackwater lakes discovered that significant amounts of carbon dioxide bubbling into the atmosphere come not just from recent plant life, but from peat that has been locked away for thousands of years. At the confluence of the Fimi and Kasai rivers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, dark water from forest landscapes meets water from the savannahs, colored red by iron oxides. Credit: Matti Barthel / ETH Zurich Tropical swamps and peatlands are critical players in Earth's carbon cycle and, by extension, the global climate. In regions such as the Amazon Basin, the Congo Basin, and the wetlands of Southeast Asia, thick layers of partially decomposed plant material build up over time. Together, these ecosystems lock away ...

This ultra-thin surface controls light in two completely different ways A new metasurface design lets light of different spins bend, focus, and behave independently—while staying sharp across many colors. The trick combines two geometric phase effects so each spin channel can be tuned without interfering with the other. Researchers demonstrated stable beam steering and dual-focus lenses over wide frequency ranges. The approach could scale from microwaves all the way to visible light. The achromatic lens can focus the incident RCP and LCP light onto two distinct positions without chromatic aberration over a wide bandwidth. Credit: School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Nanjing University Broadband achromatic wavefront control is a key requirement for next-generation optical technologies, including full-color imaging and multi-spectral sensing. Researchers led by Professor Yijun Feng and Professor Ke Chen at Nanjing University have now reported a major advance in this area in Phot...