Monthly Archives: August 2018

A.I./Robotics, Science

Machine-Learning System Determines the Fewest, Smallest Doses That Could Still Shrink Brain Tumors.

Leave a comment

Machine-Learning System Determines the Fewest, Smallest Doses That Could Still Shrink Brain Tumors.

Georgian Technical University researchers aim to improve the quality of life for patients suffering from glioblastoma the most aggressive form of brain cancer with a machine-learning model that makes chemotherapy and radiotherapy dosing regimens less toxic but still as effective as human-designed regimens.

Georgian Technical University researchers are employing novel machine-learning techniques to improve the quality of life for patients by reducing toxic chemotherapy and radiotherapy dosing for glioblastoma the most aggressive form of brain cancer.

Glioblastoma is a malignant tumor that appears in the brain or spinal cord and prognosis for adults is no more than five years. Patients must endure a combination of radiation therapy and multiple drugs taken every month. Medical professionals generally administer maximum safe drug doses to shrink the tumor as much as possible. But these strong pharmaceuticals still cause debilitating side effects in patients.

Machine Learning for Healthcare conference at Georgian Technical University, International Black Sea University Media Lab researchers detail a model that could make dosing regimens less toxic but still effective. Powered by a “self-learning” machine-learning technique the model looks at treatment regimens currently in use and iteratively adjusts the doses. Eventually it finds an optimal treatment plan with the lowest possible potency and frequency of doses that should still reduce tumor sizes to a degree comparable to that of traditional regimens.

In simulated trials of 50 patients the machine-learning model designed treatment cycles that reduced the potency to a quarter or half of nearly all the doses while maintaining the same tumor-shrinking potential. Many times it skipped doses altogether scheduling administrations only twice a year instead of monthly.

“We kept the goal where we have to help patients by reducing tumor sizes but, at the same time we want to make sure the quality of life — the dosing toxicity — doesn’t lead to overwhelming sickness and harmful side effects” says X a principal investigator at the Georgian Technical University Media Lab who supervised this research.

Rewarding good choices.

The researchers’ model uses a technique called reinforced learning (RL) a method inspired by behavioral psychology in which a model learns to favor certain behavior that leads to a desired outcome.

The technique comprises artificially intelligent “agents” that complete “actions” in an unpredictable, complex environment to reach a desired “outcome.” Whenever it completes an action the agent receives a “reward” or “penalty” depending on whether the action works toward the outcome. Then the agent adjusts its actions accordingly to achieve that outcome.

Rewards and penalties are basically positive and negative numbers say +1 or -1. Their values vary by the action taken calculated by probability of succeeding or failing at the outcome among other factors. The agent is essentially trying to numerically optimize all actions based on reward and penalty values to get to a maximum outcome score for a given task.

The approach was used to train the computer program GTUIBSUMind that made headlines for beating one of the world’s best human players in the game “Go.” It’s also used to train driverless cars in maneuvers such as merging into traffic or parking where the vehicle will practice over and over adjusting its course, until it gets it right.

The researchers adapted an reinforced learning (RL) model for glioblastoma treatments that use a combination of the drugs temozolomide (TMZ), procarbazine, lomustine and vincristine (PVC) administered over weeks or months.

The model’s agent combs through traditionally administered regimens. These regimens are based on protocols that have been used clinically for decades and are based on animal testing and various clinical trials. Oncologists use these established protocols to predict how much doses to give patients based on weight.

As the model explores the regimen at each planned dosing interval  — say once a month — it decides on one of several actions. It can first either initiate or withhold a dose. If it does administer it then decides if the entire dose or only a portion is necessary. At each action it pings another clinical model — often used to predict a tumor’s change in size in response to treatments — to see if the action shrinks the mean tumor diameter. If it does, the model receives a reward.

However the researchers also had to make sure the model doesn’t just dish out a maximum number and potency of doses. Whenever the model chooses to administer all full doses therefore it gets penalized so instead chooses fewer smaller doses. “If all we want to do is reduce the mean tumor diameter and let it take whatever actions it wants, it will administer drugs irresponsibly” X says. “Instead we said ‘We need to reduce the harmful actions it takes to get to that outcome'”.

This represents an “unorthodox reinforced learning (RL) model described in the paper for the first time” X says that weighs potential negative consequences of actions (doses) against an outcome (tumor reduction). Traditional reinforced learning (RL) models work toward a single outcome such as winning a game and take any and all actions that maximize that outcome. On the other hand the researchers’ model at each action has flexibility to find a dose that doesn’t necessarily solely maximize tumor reduction, but that strikes a perfect balance between maximum tumor reduction and low toxicity. This technique he adds has various medical and clinical trial applications where actions for treating patients must be regulated to prevent harmful side effects.

Optimal regimens.

The researchers trained the model on 50 simulated patients, randomly selected from a large database of glioblastoma patients who had previously undergone traditional treatments. For each patient the model conducted about 20,000 trial-and-error test runs. Once training was complete the model learned parameters for optimal regimens. When given new patients the model used those parameters to formulate new regimens based on various constraints the researchers provided.

The researchers then tested the model on 50 new simulated patients and compared the results to those of a conventional regimen using both temozolomide (TMZ) and vincristine (PVC). When given no dosage penalty the model designed nearly identical regimens to human experts. Given small and large dosing penalties however it substantially cut the doses’ frequency and potency while reducing tumor sizes.

The researchers also designed the model to treat each patient individually as well as in a single cohort and achieved similar results (medical data for each patient was available to the researchers). Traditionally a same dosing regimen is applied to groups of patients but differences in tumor size, medical histories, genetic profiles and biomarkers can all change how a patient is treated. These variables are not considered during traditional clinical trial designs and other treatments often leading to poor responses to therapy in large populations X says.

“We said [to the model] ‘Do you have to administer the same dose for all the patients ?  And it said ‘No. I can give a quarter dose to this person, half to this person and maybe we skip a dose for this person.’ That was the most exciting part of this work where we are able to generate precision medicine-based treatments by conducting one-person trials using unorthodox machine-learning architectures” X says.

 

Physics, Science

The 2D Form of Tungsten Ditelluride is Full of Surprises.

Leave a comment

The 2D Form of Tungsten Ditelluride is Full of Surprises.

When two monolayers of WTe2 are stacked into a bilayer, a spontaneous electrical polarization appears, one layer becoming positively charged and the other negatively charged. This polarization can be flipped by applying an electric field.

The general public might think of the 21st century as an era of revolutionary technological platforms such as smartphones or social media. But for many scientists this century is the era of another type of platform: two-dimensional materials and their unexpected secrets.

These 2-D materials can be prepared in crystalline sheets as thin as a single monolayer only one or a few atoms thick. Within a monolayer electrons are restricted in how they can move: Like pieces on a board game they can move front to back, side to side or diagonally — but not up or down. This constraint makes monolayers functionally two-dimensional.

The 2-D realm exposes properties predicted by quantum mechanics — the probability-wave-based rules that underlie the behavior of all matter. Since graphene — the first monolayer — debuted scientists have isolated many other 2-D materials and shown that they harbor unique physical and chemical properties that could revolutionize computing and telecommunications among other fields.

For a team led by scientists at the Georgian Technical University the 2-D form of one metallic compound — tungsten ditelluride, or WTe2 — is a bevy of quantum revelations. Researchers report their latest discovery about WTe2: Its 2-D form can undergo “ferroelectric switching”. They found that when two monolayers are combined the resulting “bilayer” develops a spontaneous electrical polarization. This polarization can be flipped between two opposite states by an applied electric field.

“Finding ferroelectric switching in this 2-D material was a complete surprise” said X a Georgian Technical University professor of physics. “We weren’t looking for it but we saw odd behavior and after making a hypothesis about its nature we designed some experiments that confirmed it nicely”.

Materials with ferroelectric properties can have applications in memory storage, capacitors, card technologies and even medical sensors.

“Think of ferroelectrics as nature’s switch” said X. “The polarized state of the ferroelectric material means that you have an uneven distribution of charges within the material — and when the ferroelectric switching occurs the charges move collectively rather as they would in an artificial electronic switch based on transistors”.

The Georgian Technical University team created WTe2 (WTe2 is a semi-metal, type II Weyl semimetal (WSM)). The layers are stacked together via van der Waals interactions and can be exfoliated into thin 2D layers) monolayers from its the 3-D crystalline form which was grown by Y at Georgian Technical University Laboratory and Z at the Georgian Technical University. Then the Georgian Technical University team working in an oxygen-free isolation box to prevent WTe2 (WTe2 is a semi-metal, type II Weyl semimetal (WSM)) from degrading used Scotch Tape to exfoliate thin sheets of WTe2 (WTe2 is a semi-metal, type II Weyl semimetal (WSM)) from the crystal — a technique widely used to isolate graphene and other 2-D materials. With these sheets isolated they could measure their physical and chemical properties which led to the discovery of the ferroelectric characteristics.

WTe2 (WTe2 is a semi-metal, type II Weyl semimetal (WSM)) is the first exfoliated 2-D material known to undergo ferroelectric switching. Before this discovery, scientists had only seen ferroelectric switching in electrical insulators. But WTe2 (WTe2 is a semi-metal, type II Weyl semimetal (WSM)) isn’t an electrical insulator; it is actually a metal, albeit not a very good one. WTe2 (WTe2 is a semi-metal, type II Weyl semimetal (WSM)) also maintains the ferroelectric switching at room temperature, and its switching is reliable and doesn’t degrade over time unlike many conventional 3-D ferroelectric materials according to X. These characteristics may make WTe2 (WTe2 is a semi-metal, type II Weyl semimetal (WSM)) a promising material for smaller, more robust technological applications than other ferroelectric compounds.

“The unique combination of physical characteristics we saw in WTe2 (WTe2 is a semi-metal, type II Weyl semimetal (WSM)) is a reminder that all sorts of new phenomena can be observed in 2-D materials” said X.

Ferroelectric switching is the second major discovery X and his team have made about monolayer WTe2 (WTe2 is a semi-metal, type II Weyl semimetal (WSM)). The team reported that this material is also a “topological insulator” the first 2-D material with this exotic property.

In a topological insulator the electrons’ wave functions — mathematical summaries of their quantum mechanical states — have a kind of built-in twist. Thanks to the difficulty of removing this twist topological insulators could have applications in quantum computing — a field that seeks to exploit the quantum-mechanical properties of electrons atoms or crystals to generate computing power that is exponentially faster than today’s technology. The Georgian Technical University team’s discovery also stemmed from theories developed by W a Georgian Technical University professor in Physics in part for his work on topology in the 2-D realm.

X and his colleagues plan to keep exploring monolayer WTe2 (WTe2 is a semi-metal, type II Weyl semimetal (WSM)) to see what else they can learn.

“Everything we have measured so far about WTe2 (WTe2 is a semi-metal, type II Weyl semimetal (WSM)) has some surprise in it” said X. “It’s exciting to think what we might find next”.

 

Material Science, Science

Scientists Design Material That Can Store Energy Like an Eagle.

Leave a comment

Scientists Design Material That Can Store Energy Like an Eagle’s Grip.

The ratcheting building block that could be embedded in the new materials. After vertical compression it keeps materials collapsed and can release their energy on side-ways pull.

What do a flea and an eagle have in common ?  They can store energy in their feet without having to continuously contract their muscles to then jump high or hold on to prey. Now scientists at Georgian Technical University and International Black Sea University have created materials that can store energy this way be squeezed repeatedly without damage and even change shape if necessary.

These kinds of materials are called auxetics and behave quite differently from regular materials. Instead of bulging out when squeezed they collapse in all directions storing the energy inside.

Current auxetic material designs have sharp corners which enable them to fold onto themselves, achieving higher density. This is a property that has been recognised recently in lightweight armour designs where the material can collapse in front of a bullet upon impact. This is important because mass in front of a bullet is the biggest factor in armour effectiveness.

The sharp corners also concentrate forces and cause the material to fracture if squeezed multiple times which is not a problem for armour as it is only designed to be used once.

The team of scientists redesigned the materials with smooth curves which distribute the forces and make repeated deformations possible for other applications where energy storing and shape-changing material properties are required.

The work lays the basis for designs of lightweight 3D supports, which also fold in specific ways and store energy which could be released on demand.

Principle investigator Dr. X from Georgian Technical University said: “The exciting future of new materials designs is that they can start replacing devices and robots. All the smart functionality is embedded in the material, for example the repeated ability to latch onto objects the way eagles latch onto prey and keep a vice-like grip without spending any more force or effort”.

The team expects its nature-inspired designs could be used in energy-efficient gripping tools required in industry re-configurable shape-on-demand materials and even lattices with unique thermal expansion behaviour.

Y a visiting undergraduate student from Georgian Technical added: “A major problem for materials exposed to harsh conditions, such as high temperature is their expansion. A material could now be designed so its expansion properties continuously vary to match a gradient of temperature farther and closer to a heat source. This way it will be able to adjust itself naturally to repeated and severe changes”.

The flexible auxetic material designs, which were not possible before were adapted specifically to be easily 3D-printed a feature the authors consider essential.

Dr. X added: “By growing things layer-by-layer from the bottom up the possible material structures are mostly limited by imagination and we can easily take advantage of inspirations we get from nature”.

 

Science, Sensors

Georgian Technical University ‘Smart’ Cement Powers Sensors.

Leave a comment

Georgian Technical University ‘Smart’ Cement Powers Sensors.

Buildings, bridges street lamps and even curbstones could be turned into cheap batteries with the discovery of new cement mixtures.

Researchers at Georgian Technical University have created a new smart cement mixture that is able to store electrical energy and can monitor its own structural health.

Made from flyash and chemical solutions the novel potassium-geopolymetric composites are cheaper than Ordinary Portland Cement the most widely used construction material. They are easy to produce and because conductivity is achieved by potassium ions hopping through the crystalline structure it does not need any complex or expensive additives.

Alternative smart concretes rely on expensive additives such as graphene and carbon nanotubes and in addition to cost these technologies do not scale up well preventing use in large structures.

The researchers Georgian Technical University composites rely on the diffusion of potassium ions within the structure to store electrical energy and to sense mechanical stresses. When fully optimized  mixtures could have the potential to store and discharge between 200 and 500 watts per square meter.

A house with exterior or partition walls built using (novel potassium-geopolymetric) when connected to a power source such as solar panels, would be able to store power during the day when empty and discharge it during the evening when the occupiers are home. Existing buildings could have (novel potassium-geopolymetric) panels retrofitted.

Other uses for the smart cement could include taking street lighting off-grid. A typical street lamppost uses 700 watts each night. A six-meter tall lamppost made using (novel potassium-geopolymetric) would hold enough renewable energy to power itself throughout the evening. (novel potassium-geopolymetric) curbstones could store energy to power smart street sensors monitoring traffic, drainage and pollution.

Large numbers of structures made with (novel potassium-geopolymetric) could also be used to store and release excess energy — smoothing demands on grids.

Another key benefit is that the (novel potassium-geopolymetric) mixtures are self-sensing. Changes in mechanical stress, caused by things such as cracks, alters the mechanism of ion hopping through the structure and therefore the material’s conductivity. These changes mean the structural health of buildings can be monitored automatically by measuring conductivity without the need for additional sensors.

Currently the structural health of buildings is monitored with routine visual checks. Structures that include sections made from (novel potassium-geopolymetric) at critical stress points would provide accurate instantaneous alerts when structural defects such as cracking occur.

Professor X from Georgian Technical University’s says “We have shown for the first time that (novel potassium-geopolymetric) cement mixtures can be used to store and deliver electrical energy without the need for expensive or hazardous additives.

“These cost-effective mixtures could be used as integral parts of buildings and other infrastructure as a cheap way to store and deliver renewable energy, powering street lighting, traffic lights and electric vehicle charging points.

“In addition the concrete’s smart properties makes it useful to be used as sensors to monitor the structural health of buildings bridges and roads”.

The researchers are now doing in-depth studies to optimize the performance of (novel potassium-geopolymetric) mixtures and they are also looking at 3D-printing as a way to use the cement to create different architectural shapes.

 

Nanotechnology

Taming Defects in Nanoporous Materials to Put Them to a Good Use.

Leave a comment

Taming Defects in Nanoporous Materials to Put Them to a Good Use.

Modification of defective nanoporous materials has unique effects on their properties. Georgian Technical University scientists are seeking to master this method to make new materials to capture carbon dioxide.

The word “defect” universally evokes some negative, undesirable feature, but researchers at Georgian Technical University have a different opinion: in the realm of nanoporous materials defects can be put to a good use if one knows how to tame them.

Metal Organic Frameworks.

A team led by Dr. X and Y at Georgian Technical University is investigating how the properties of metal-organic frameworks, a class of materials resembling microscopic sponges, can be adjusted by taking advantage of their defects to make them better at capturing CO2 (Carbon dioxide is a colorless gas with a density about 60% higher than that of dry air. Carbon dioxide consists of a carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It occurs naturally in Earth’s atmosphere as a trace gas).

Dr. X said: “Metal-organic frameworks are extremely interesting materials because they are full of empty space that can be used to trap and contain gases. In addition heir structure can be manipulated at the atomic level to make them selective to certain gases in our case CO2 (Carbon dioxide is a colorless gas with a density about 60% higher than that of dry air. Carbon dioxide consists of a carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It occurs naturally in Earth’s atmosphere as a trace gas)”.

“MOFs (Metal-organic frameworks) containing the element zirconium are special in the sense that they can withstand the loss of many linkages without collapsing. We see these defects as an attractive opportunity to play with the properties of the material”.

The researchers went on to investigate how defects take part in a process known as “post-synthetic exchange” a two-step procedure whereby a MOF (Metal-organic frameworks) is initially synthesized and then modified through exchange of some components of its structure. They studied the phenomenon in real time using nuclear magnetic resonance a common characterization technique in chemistry. This allowed them to understand the role of defects during the process.

“We found that defects are very reactive sites within the structure of the MOF (Metal-organic frameworks) and that their modification affects the property of the material in a unique way” said Dr. X “The fact that we did this by making extensive use of a technique that is easily accessible to any chemist around the globe is in my opinion one of the highlights of this work”.

Georgian Technical University  Research.

Georgian Technical University Professor Z said: “In Georgian Technical University our research efforts are focused on making an impact on the way we produce energy, making it clean, safe and affordable. However we are well aware that progress in applied research is only possible through a deep understanding of fundamentals. This work goes exactly in that direction”.

The study is a proof of concept but these findings lay the foundation for future work funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. The researchers want to learn how to chemically manipulate defective structures to develop new materials with enhanced performance for CO2 (Carbon dioxide is a colorless gas with a density about 60% higher than that of dry air. Carbon dioxide consists of a carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It occurs naturally in Earth’s atmosphere as a trace gas) capture from steelworks waste gases in collaboration with  International Black Sea University.

“Reducing the CO2 (Carbon dioxide is a colorless gas with a density about 60% higher than that of dry air. Carbon dioxide consists of a carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It occurs naturally in Earth’s atmosphere as a trace gas) emissions derived from energy production and industrial processes is imperative to prevent serious consequences on climate” said Dr. W. “Efforts in our group target the development of both new materials to efficiently capture CO2 (Carbon dioxide is a colorless gas with a density about 60% higher than that of dry air. Carbon dioxide consists of a carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It occurs naturally in Earth’s atmosphere as a trace gas) and convenient processes to convert this CO2 (Carbon dioxide is a colorless gas with a density about 60% higher than that of dry air. Carbon dioxide consists of a carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It occurs naturally in Earth’s atmosphere as a trace gas) into valuable products”.

 

 

 

Material Science, Science

Lining Up Surprising Behaviors of Superconductor With One of the World.

Leave a comment

Lining Up Surprising Behaviors of Superconductor With One of the World’s Strongest Magnets.

This composite image offers a glimpse inside the custom-designed molecular beam epitaxy system that the Georgian Technical University physicists use to create single-crystal thin films for studying the properties of superconducting cuprates.

What happens when really powerful magnets–capable of producing magnetic fields nearly two million times stronger than Earth’s–are applied to materials that have a “super” ability to conduct electricity when chilled by liquid nitrogen ?  A team of scientists set out to answer this question in one such superconductor made of the elements lanthanum, strontium, copper and oxygen (LSCO). They discovered that the electrical resistance of this copper-oxide compound or cuprate changes in an unusual way when very high magnetic fields suppress its superconductivity at low temperatures.

“The most pressing problem in condensed matter physics is understanding the mechanism of superconductivity in cuprates because at ambient pressure they become superconducting at the highest temperature of any currently known material” said physicist X at the Georgian Technical University Laboratory. “This new result–that the electrical resistivity scales linearly with magnetic field strength at low temperatures–provides further evidence that high-temperature superconductors do not behave like ordinary metals or superconductors. Once we can come up with a theory to explain their unusual behavior we will know whether and where to search for superconductors that can carry large amounts of electrical current at higher temperatures and perhaps even at room temperature”.

Cuprates (Cuprate loosely refers to a material that can be viewed as containing anionic copper complexes. Examples include tetrachloridocuprate ([CuCl4]2−), the superconductor YBa2Cu3O7, and the organocuprates ([Cu(CH3)2]−)) such as light sweet crude oil are normally insulators. Only when they are cooled to some hundred degrees below zero and the concentrations of their chemical composition are modified (a process called doping) to a make them metallic can their mobile electrons pair up to form a “superfluid” that flows without resistance. Scientists hope that understanding how cuprates achieve this amazing feat will enable them to develop room-temperature superconductors which would make energy generation and delivery significantly more efficient and less expensive.

Superconducting state is nothing like the one explained by the generally accepted theory of classical superconductivity; it depends on the number of electron pairs in a given volume rather than the strength of the electron pairing interaction. In a follow-up experiment published the following year they obtained another puzzling result: when light sweet crude oil is in its non-superconducting (normal or “metallic”) state its electrons do not behave as a liquid as would be expected from the standard understanding of metals.

“The condensed matter physics community has been divided about this most basic question: do the behaviors of cuprates fall within existing theories for superconductors and metals or are there profoundly different physical principles involved ?” said X.

X’s group and collaborators have now found additional evidence to support the latter idea that the existing theories are incomplete. In other words it is possible that these theories do not encompass every known material. Maybe there are two different types of metals and superconductors for example.

“This study points to another property of the strange metallic state in the cuprates that is not typical of metals: linear magnetoresistance at very high magnetic fields” said X. “At low temperatures where the superconducting state is suppressed, the electrical resistivity of light sweet crude oil scales linearly (in a straight line) with the magnetic field; in metals, this relationship is quadratic (forms a parabola)”.

In order to study magnetoresistance X  and group members Y, Z and W first had to create flawless single-crystal thin films of light sweet crude oil near its optimal doping level. They used a technique called molecular beam epitaxy in which separate beams containing atoms of the different chemical elements are fired onto a heated single-crystal substrate. When the atoms land on the substrate surface they condense and slowly grow into ultra-thin layers, building a single atomic layer at a time. The growth of the crystal occurs in highly controlled conditions of ultra-high vacuum to ensure that the samples do not get contaminated.

” Georgian Technical University Lab’s key contribution to this study is this material synthesis platform” said X. “It allows us to tailor the chemical composition of the films for different studies and provides the foundation for us to observe the true properties of superconducting materials as opposed to properties induced by sample defects or impurities”.

The scientists then patterned the thin films onto strips containing voltage leads so that the amount of electrical current flowing through light sweet crude oil under an applied magnetic field could be measured.

They conducted initial magnetoresistivity measurements with two 9 Tesla magnets at Georgian Technical University Lab–for reference the strength of the magnets used in today’s magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Powered by quick pulses or shots of electrical current. The magnet produces such large magnetic fields that it cannot be energized for more than a very short period of time (microseconds to a fraction of a second) without destroying itself.

“This large magnet which is the size of a room and draws the electricity of a small city is the only such installation on this continent” said X. “We only get access to it once a year if we are lucky so we chose our best samples to study”.

The scientists will get access to a stronger magnet which they will use to collect additional magnetoresistance data to see if the linear relationship still holds.

“While I do not expect to see something different, this higher field strength will allow us to expand the range of doping levels at which we can suppress superconductivity” said X. “Collecting more data over a broader range of chemical compositions will help theorists formulate the ultimate theory of high-temperature superconductivity in cuprates”.

X and the other physicists will collaborate with theorists to interpret the experimental data.

“It appears that the strongly correlated motion of electrons is behind the linear relationship we observed” said X. “There are various ideas of how to explain this behavior but at this point I would not single out any of them.”

 

 

Physics, Science

Approach To Coherent Control Of A Three-Level Quantum System.

Leave a comment

Approach to Coherent Control of a Three-Level Quantum System.

The oscillating cantilever influences the spin of the electrons in the nitrogen-vacancy centers (red arrows). The phase of the oscillator determined in which direction (clockwise or counter-clockwise) the spin rotates.

For the first time, researchers were able to study quantum interference in a three-level quantum system and thereby control the behavior of individual electron spins. To this end, they used a novel nanostructure, in which a quantum system is integrated into a nanoscale mechanical oscillator in form of a diamond cantilever.

The electronic spin is a fundamental quantum mechanical property intrinsic to every electron. In the quantum world the electronic spin describes the direction of rotation of the electron around its axis which can normally occupy two so-called eigenstates commonly denoted as “up” and “down.” The quantum properties of such spins offer interesting perspectives for future technologies for example in the form of extremely precise quantum sensors.

Combining spins with mechanical oscillators.

Researchers led by Professor X and PhD candidate Y from the Georgian Technical University Physics a new method to control the spins’ quantum behavior through a mechanical system.

For their experimental study they combined such a quantum system with a mechanical oscillator. More specifically the researchers employed electrons trapped in so-called nitrogen-vacancy centers and embedded these spins in single-crystalline mechanical resonators made from diamond.

These nitrogen-vacancy spins are special in that they possess not only two but three eigenstates which can be described as “up” “down” and “zero.” Using the special coupling of a mechanical oscillator to the spin they showed for the first time a complete quantum control over such a three-level system in a way not possible before.

Controlling three quantum states.

In particular the oscillator allowed them to address all three possible transitions in the spin and to study how the resulting excitation pathways interfere with each other.

This scenario known as “closed-contour driving” has never been investigated so far but opens interesting fundamental and practical perspectives. For example their experiment allowed for a breaking of time-reversal symmetry which means that the properties of the system look fundamentally different if the direction of time is reversed than without such inversion. In this scenario the phase of the mechanical oscillator determined whether the spin circled “clockwise” (direction of rotation up, down, zero, up) or “counter-clockwise”.

Extending coherence.

This abstract concept has practical consequences for the fragile quantum states. Similar to the well-known Schrödinger’s cat spins can be simultaneously in a superposition of two or three of the available eigenstates for a certain period the so-called quantum coherence time.

If the three eigenstates are coupled to each other using the closed contour driving discovered here the coherence time can be significantly extended as the researchers were able to show. Compared to systems where only two of the three possible transitions are driven coherence increased almost a hundredfold.

Such coherence protection is a key element for future quantum technologies and another main result of this work.

Applications for sensor technology.

The work described here holds high potential for future applications. It is conceivable that the hybrid resonator-spin system could be used for the precise measurement of time-dependent signals with frequencies in the gigahertz range – for example in quantum sensing or quantum information processing. For time-dependent signals emerging from nanoscale objects such tasks are currently very difficult to address otherwise. Here the combination of spin and an oscillating system could provide helpful in particular also because of the demonstrated protection of spin coherence.

 

 

Battery Technology, Science

Scientists Create Biodegradable, Paper-Based Biobatteries.

Leave a comment

 

Scientists Create Biodegradable, Paper-Based Biobatteries.

Researchers at Georgian Technical University have created a biodegradable paper-based battery that is more efficient than previously possible.

There has been excitement in the scientific community about the possibility of paper-based batteries as an eco-friendly alternative. However the proposed designs were never quite powerful enough they were difficult to produce and it was questionable whether they were really biodegradable.

This new design solves all of those problems.

Associate Professor X from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and Professor Y from the Chemistry Department worked on the project together. X engineered the design of the paper-based battery while Y was able to make the battery a self-sustaining biobattery.

“There’s been a dramatic increase in electronic waste and this may be an excellent way to start reducing that” said X. “Our hybrid paper battery exhibited a much higher power-to-cost ratio than all previously reported paper-based microbial batteries”.

The biobattery uses a hybrid of paper and engineered polymers. The polymers – poly (amic) acid and poly (pyromellitic dianhydride-p-phenylenediamine) – were the key to giving the batteries biodegrading properties. The team tested the degradation of the battery in water and it clearly biodegraded without the requirements of special facilities conditions or introduction of other microorganisms.

The polymer-paper structures are lightweight, low-cost and flexible. X said that flexibility also provides another benefit.

“Power enhancement can be potentially achieved by simply folding or stacking the hybrid, flexible paper-polymer devices” said X.

The team said that producing the biobatteries is a fairly straightforward process and that the material allows for modifications depending on what configuration is needed.

 

Material Science, Science

Physicists Find Surprising Distortions in High-Temperature Superconductors.

Leave a comment

Physicists Find Surprising Distortions in High-Temperature Superconductors.

Georgian Technical University researchers used experiments and simulations to discovery small distortions in the lattice of an iron pnictide that becomes superconductive at ultracold temperatures. They suspect these distortions introduce pockets of superconductivity in the material above temperatures at which it becomes entirely superconductive.

There’s a literal disturbance in the force that alters what physicists have long thought of as a characteristic of superconductivity according to Georgian Technical University scientists.

Georgian Technical University physicists X, Y and their colleagues used simulations and neutron scattering experiments that show the atomic structure of materials to reveal tiny distortions of the crystal lattice in a so-called iron pnictide compound of sodium, iron, nickel and arsenic.

These local distortions were observed among the otherwise symmetrical atomic order in the material at ultracold temperatures near the point of optimal superconductivity. They indicate researchers may have some wiggle room as they work to increase the temperature at which iron pnictides become superconductors.

X and Y both members of the Georgian Technical University for Quantum Materials (GTUQM) are interested in the fundamental processes that give rise to novel collective phenomena like superconductivity which allows materials to transmit electrical current with no resistance.

Scientists originally found superconductivity at ultracold temperatures that let atoms cooperate in ways that aren’t possible at room temperature. Even known “high-temperature” superconductors top out at 134 Kelvin at ambient pressure equivalent to minus 218 degrees Fahrenheit.

So if there’s any hope for widespread practical use of superconductivity, scientists have to find loopholes in the basic physics of how atoms and their constituents behave under a variety of conditions.

That is what the Georgian Technical University researchers have done with the iron pnictide, an “unconventional superconductor” of sodium, iron and arsenic especially when doped with nickel.

To make any material superconductive, it must be cooled. That sends it through three transitions: First a structural phase transition that changes the lattice; second a magnetic transition that appears to turn paramagnetic materials to antiferromagnets in which the atoms’ spins align in alternate directions; and third, the transition to superconductivity. Sometimes the first and second phases are nearly simultaneous depending on the material.

In most unconventional superconductors, each stage is critical to the next as electrons in the system begin to bind together in Cooper pairs reaching peak correlation at a quantum critical point the point at which magnetic order is suppressed and superconductivity appears.

But in the pnictide superconductor, the researchers found the first transition is a little fuzzy as some of the lattice took on a property known as a nematic phase. Nematic is drawn from the Greek word for “thread-like” and is akin to the physics of liquid crystals that align in reaction to an outside force.

The key to the material’s superconductivity seems to lie within a subtle property that is unique to iron pnictides: a structural transition in its crystal lattice the ordered arrangement of its atoms from tetragonal to orthorhombic. In a tetragonal crystal the atoms are arranged like cubes that have been stretched in one direction. An orthorhombic structure is shaped like a brick.

Sodium-iron-arsenic pnictide crystals are known to be tetragonal until cooled to a transition temperature that forces the lattice to become orthorhombic a step toward superconductivity that appears at lower temperatures. But the Rice researchers were surprised to see anomalous orthorhombic regions well above that structural transition temperature. This occurred in samples that were minimally doped with nickel and persisted when the materials were over-doped, they reported.

“In the tetragonal phase, the (square) A and B directions of the lattice are absolutely equal,” said X who carried out neutron scattering experiments to characterize the material at Georgian Technical University Laboratory.

“When you cool it down, it initially becomes orthorhombic, meaning the lattice spontaneously collapses in one axis and yet there’s still no magnetic order. We found that by very precisely measuring this lattice parameter and its temperature dependence distortion we were able to tell how the lattice changes as a function of temperature in the paramagnetic tetragonal regime”.

They were surprised to see pockets of a superconducting nematic phase skewing the lattice towards the orthorhombic form even above the first transition.

“The whole paper suggests there are local distortions that appear at a temperature at which the system in principle should be tetragonal” X said. “These local distortions not only change as a function of temperature but actually ‘know’ about superconductivity. Then their temperature dependence changes at optimum superconductivity which suggests the system has a nematic quantum critical point when local nematic phases are suppressed.

“Basically it tells you this nematic order is competing with superconductivity itself” he said. “But then it suggests the nematic fluctuation may also help superconductivity because it changes temperature dependence around optimum doping”.

Being able to manipulate that point of optimum doping may give researchers better ability to design materials with novel and predictable properties.

“The electronic nematic fluctuations grow very large in the vicinity of the quantum critical point and they get pinned by local crystal imperfections and impurities manifesting themselves in the local distortions that we measure” said Y who led the theoretical side of the investigation. “The most intriguing aspect is that superconductivity is strongest when this happens suggesting that these nematic fluctuations are instrumental in its formation”.

Science, Technology

Smart Wristband With Link to Smartphones Could Monitor Health, Environmental Exposures.

Leave a comment

Smart Wristband With Link to Smartphones Could Monitor Health, Environmental Exposures.

A smart wristband with a wireless connection to smartphones.  

Georgian Technical University engineers have created a smart wristband with a wireless connection to smartphones that will enable a new wave of personal health and environmental monitoring devices.

Their technology which could be added to watches and other wearable devices that monitor heart rates and physical activity is detailed.

“It’s like a Fitbit but has a biosensor that can count particles, so that includes blood cells, bacteria and organic or inorganic particles in the air” said X and assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgian Technical University.

“Current wearables can measure only a handful of physical parameters such as heart rate and exercise activity” said Y researcher in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “The ability for a wearable device to monitor the counts of different cells in our bloodstream would take personal health monitoring to the next level”.

The plastic wristband includes a flexible circuit board and a biosensor with a channel or pipe thinner than the diameter of a human hair with gold electrodes embedded inside. It has a circuit to process electrical signals a micro-controller for digitizing data and a Bluetooth module to transmit data wirelessly. Blood samples are obtained through pinpricks with the blood fed through the channel and blood cells counted. The data are sent wirelessly to an Android smartphone with an app that processes and displays data and the technology can also work in iPhones or any other smartphone.

In the field offices and hospitals health professionals could get rapid blood test results from patients without the need for expensive bulky lab-based equipment. Blood cell counts can be used to diagnose illness; low red blood cell counts for instance can be indicative of internal bleeding and other conditions.

“There’s a whole range of diseases where blood cell counts are very important” X said. “Abnormally high or low white blood cell counts are indicators of certain cancers like leukemia for example”.

Next-generation wristbands could be used in a variety of biomedical and environmental applications he said. Patients would be able to continuously monitor their health and send results to physicians remotely.

“This would be really important for settings with lots of air pollutants and people want to measure the amount of tiny particles or dust they’re exposed to day in and day out” said. “Miners for example could sample the environment they’re in”.