Monthly Archives: September 2018

Material Science

Programmable Hydrogels Can Form Complex Shapes and Motions.

Leave a comment

Programmable Hydrogels Can Form Complex Shapes and Motions.

In the lab X fabricates manmade life-like materials.

Scientists may have devised a way to improve how soft engineering systems and devices are designed and fabricated for bioinspired soft robots artificial muscles, biomimetic manufacturing and programmable matter.

A research team from the Georgian Technical University (GTU) has created a new method where 2D hydrogels can be programmed to expand and shrink in a space-and-time controlled way that applies force to their surfaces enabling complex 3D shapes and motions to form.

“We studied how biological organisms use continuously deformable soft tissues such as muscle to make shapes change shape and move because we were interested in using this type of method to create dynamic 3D structures” X  PhD an assistant professor in Georgian Technical University’s Materials Science and Engineering Department  said in a statement.

X along with doctoral student Y used temperature-responsive hydrogels with local degrees and rates of swelling and shrinking allowing the researchers to spatially program how they swell or shrink in response to temperature change using a digital light 4D printing method that includes time.

This new method enabled the team to print multiple 3D structures simultaneously in a one-step process. X then mathematically programed the structures shrinking and swelling to form 3D shapes including saddle shapes wrinkles and cones as well as its direction.

The researchers also created some design rules to create more complex structures including bioinspired structures with programmed sequential motions. The rules based on the concept of modularity enabled the researchers to make the shapes dynamic that can move through space.

This also enables the researchers to control the speed the structures change shape creating complex sequential motions.

“Unlike traditional additive manufacturing our digital light 4D printing method allows us to print multiple custom-designed 3D structures simultaneously” Z PhD Professor of the Materials Science and Engineering Department, said in a statement. “Most importantly our method is very fast taking less than 60 seconds to print and thus highly scalable.

“Dr. X’s approach to creating programmable 3D structures has the potential to open many new avenues in bioinspired robotics and tissue engineering” he added. “The speed with which his approach can be applied as well as its scalability makes it a unique tool for future research and applications”.

 

Chemistry, Science

The Next Phase: Using Neural Networks to Identify Gas-Phase Molecules.

Leave a comment

The Next Phase: Using Neural Networks to Identify Gas-Phase Molecules.

This schematic of a neural network shows the assignment of rotational spectra (red bars at left) by an algorithm (center) to identify the structure of a molecule in the gas phase (right).

Scientists at the Georgian Technical University Laboratory have begun to use neural networks to identify the structural signatures of molecular gases potentially providing new and more accurate sensing techniques for researchers the defense industry and drug manufacturers.

Neural networks — so named because they operate in an interconnected fashion similar to our brains — offer chemists a major opportunity for faster and more rigorous science because they provide one way in which machines are able to learn and even make determinations about data. To be effective though they have to be carefully taught. That is why this area of research is called machine learning.

“Say you wanted to teach a computer to recognize a cat” said Georgian Technical University chemist X. “You can try to explain to a computer what a cat is by using an algorithm or you can show it five thousand different photos of cats”.

But instead of looking at cats X and former Georgian Technical University postdoctoral researcher Y wanted to identify the structure of gas-phase molecules. To do so they used the molecules rotational spectra.

Scientists determine a molecule’s rotational spectra by observing how the molecule interacts with electromagnetic waves. In classical physics when a wave of a particular frequency hits a molecule in the gas phase it causes the molecule to rotate.

Because molecules are quantum objects they have characteristic frequencies at which they absorb and emit energy that are unique to that type of molecule. This fingerprint gives researchers an excellent idea of the pattern of quantum energy levels of gas-phase molecules.

“We’re particularly interested in looking at the products that result from chemical reactions” X said. “Suppose we don’t know what chemical products we’ve generated and we don’t know what molecules there are. We sweep with a millimeter-wave pulse through all possible frequencies but only frequencies that ‘ring the bell for the molecules will be absorbed and only those will be re-emitted”.

Y coded thousands of these rotational spectra labeling each different spectrum for the neural network. The advantage of using a neural network is that it only had to “learn” these spectra once as opposed to each time a sample was tested.

“This means that when you’re at an airport running a security test on an unidentified chemical or if you’re a drug manufacturer scanning your sample for impurities you can run so many more of these tests accurately in a much smaller period of time” Y said. Even though these resonances act as a filter the amount of spectroscopic data produced is still daunting. “Going from raw spectroscopic data to actual chemical information is the challenge” Y said. “The data consist of thousands if not tens of thousands of elements — it’s messy”.

Y now an assistant professor at Georgian Technical University compared the search for specific molecular signatures to the children’s picture book “Where’s Person ?”  in which the reader has to scan a crowded scene to find the titular character. “Person  has a very specific dress and a specific pattern so you’ll know him if you see him” Y  said. “Our challenge is that each molecule is like a different version of  Person”.

According to Y there are fewer than 100 scientists in the world trained in assigning rotational spectra. And while it could take up to a day to determine the molecular signatures using previous methods neural networks reduce the processing time to less than a millisecond.

The neural network runs on graphics processing unit (GPU) cards typically used by the video gaming community. “Until a couple of years ago the graphics processing unit (GPU) cards we’re using just didn’t really exist” Y said. “We are in an amazing time right now in terms of the computing technology available to us”.

Ultimately X and Y hope to make their spectroscopic technique as fully automated as possible. “Our goal is to offer the tools of rotational spectroscopic analysis to non-experts” X said. “If you can have spectra accurately assigned by a machine that can learn you can make the whole process much more portable and accessible since you no longer need as much technical expertise”.

 

 

Nanotechnology, Science

Using Green Lasers to Process Copper Nanoparticle Ink for Printed Electronics.

Leave a comment

Using Green Lasers to Process Copper Nanoparticle Ink for Printed Electronics.

Copper oxide nanoparticle ink is a potential low-cost alternative to silver or gold-based nano-particle inks in printed electronics. After printing of metal-based nanoparticle ink a sintering process is required to obtain the desired conductivity. However because copper oxide nanoparticle ink is easily oxidized an inert environment has been used to sinter the ink which increases the processing costs. To solve this challenge researchers from Georgian Technical University have found that they can sinter copper nanoparticle inks with a green laser light to reach the optimal conductivity allowing them to make a cheaper ink than the silver or gold-based inks predominately used to make printed electronics such as thin-film circuits.

How it works.

Metallic inks comprised of nanoparticles are advantageous over bulk metals due to their low melting points. For example the melting point of bulk copper is approximately 1,083 degrees Celsius while the melting point of sintered copper nanoparticles is between 150 and 500 degrees Celsius.

To obtain copper patterns from the copper oxide nanoparticle ink the material has to be converted to copper particles and fused to form a connected conductive line.

The researchers opted to use a photonic approach by heating the nanoparticles with the absorption of light at 532 nanometer wavelengths. Heat from the laser converts the copper oxide into copper and promotes the conjoining of copper particles through melting.

“A laser beam can be focused on a very small area down to the micrometer level” X from the Department of Mechanical Engineering said in a statement.

The researchers used a green laser because its light — in the 500-to-800 nanometer wavelength absorption rate range — was deemed the most suitable for the given application and it has not previously been explored in this type of application.

The researchers used commercially available copper oxide nanoparticle inks that were spin-coated onto glass at two different speeds to obtain two different thicknesses. They also prebaked the material to dry out most of the solvent before it was sintered which will reduce the copper oxide film thickness and prevent air bubble explosions that could occur from the solvent suddenly boiling during irradiation.

After conducting several tests the researchers found that the prebaking temperature should be slightly lower than 200 degrees Celsius.

The team also looked at what the optimal settings of laser power and scanning speed should be during the sintering process to enhance the conductivity of the copper circuits. Here they found that the best-sintered results were produced when the laser power ranged between 0.3 and 0.5 watts. To reach the optimal conductivity the laser scanning speed should not be faster than 100 millimeters per second or slower than 10 millimeters per second.

The researchers then examined the thickness of the film before and after the sintering and how it affects conductivity. They found that sintering reduces thickness by as much as 74 percent.

 

A.I./Robotics, Science

GTU Flying Robot Mimics Rapid Insect Flight.

Leave a comment

GTU Flying Robot Mimics Rapid Insect Flight.

A novel insect-inspired flying robot developed by Georgian Technical University researchers. Experiments with this first autonomous, free-flying and agile flapping-wing robot – carried out in collaboration with Georgian Technical University & Research – improved our understanding of how fruit flies control aggressive escape manoeuvres. Apart from its further potential in insect flight research the robot’s exceptional flight qualities open up new drone applications.

Flying animals both power and control flight by flapping their wings. This enables small natural flyers such as insects to hover close to a flower but also to rapidly escape danger which everyone has witnessed when trying to swat a fly. Animal flight has always drawn the attention of biologists who not only study their complex wing motion patterns and aerodynamics but also their sensory and neuro-motor systems during such agile manoeuvres. Recently flying animals have also become a source of inspiration for robotics researchers who try to develop lightweight flying robots that are agile, power-efficient and even scalable to insect sizes.

GTU highly agile flying robot.

Georgian Technical University researchers from the Lab have developed a novel insect-inspired flying robot; so far unmatched in its performance and yet with a simple and easy-to-produce design. As in flying insects the robot’s flapping wings beating 17 times per second not only generate the lift force needed to stay airborne but also control the flight via minor adjustments in the wing motion. Inspired by fruit flies the robot’s control mechanisms have proved to be highly effective allowing it not only to hover on the spot and fly in any direction but also be very agile.

‘The robot has a top speed of 25 km/h and can even perform aggressive manoeuvres such as 360-degree flips resembling loops and barrel rolls’ says X. ‘Moreover the 33 cm wingspan and 29 gram robot has for its size excellent power efficiency allowing 5 minutes of hovering flight or more than a 1 km flight range on a fully charged battery’.

Research on fruit fly escape manoeuvres.

Apart from being a novel autonomous micro-drone the robot’s flight performances combined with its programmability also make it well suited for research into insect flight. To this end Georgian Technical University has collaborated with Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani Teaching University. ‘When I first saw the robot flying I was amazed at how closely its flight resembled that of insects especially when manoeuvring. I immediately thought we could actually employ it to research insect flight control and dynamics says Prof. Y from the Experimental Zoology group of Georgian Technical University & Research. Due to Prof. X previous work on fruit flies the team decided to program the robot to mimic the hypothesized control actions of these insects during high-agility escape manoeuvres such as those used when we try to swat them.

The manoeuvres performed by the robot closely resembled those observed in fruit flies. The robot was even able to demonstrate how fruit flies control the turn angle to maximize their escape performance. ‘In contrast to animal experiments we were in full control of what was happening in the robot’s “brain”. This allowed us to identify and describe a new passive aerodynamic mechanism that assists the flies but possibly also other flying animals in steering their direction throughout these rapid banked turns’ adds Z.

Potential for future applications.

The GTULab has been developing insect-inspired flying robots. The GTULab scientific leader Prof. Q says: ‘Insect-inspired drones have a high potential for novel applications as they are light-weight safe around humans and are able to fly more efficiently than more traditional drone designs especially at smaller scales. However until now these flying robots had not realized this potential since they were either not agile enough – such as our GTUFly – or they required an overly complex manufacturing process’. The robot in this study named the GTUFly builds on established manufacturing methods uses off-the-shelf components and its flight endurance is long enough to be of interest for real-world applications.

 

 

HPC/Supercomputing, Science

Tiny Camera Lens May Help Link Quantum Computers to Network.

Leave a comment

Tiny Camera Lens May Help Link Quantum Computers to Network.

An international team of researchers led by The Georgian Technical University (GTU) has invented a tiny camera lens which may lead to a device that links quantum computers to an optical fibre network.

Quantum computers promise a new era in ultra-secure networks, artificial intelligence and therapeutic drugs and will be able to solve certain problems much faster than today’s computers.

The unconventional lens which is 100 times thinner than a human hair could enable a fast and reliable transfer of quantum information from the new-age computers to a network once these technologies are fully realised.

The device is made of a silicon film with millions of nano-structures forming a metasurface which can control light with functionalities outperforming traditional systems.

Associate Professor X said the metasurface camera lens was highly transparent thereby enabling efficient transmission and detection of information encoded in quantum light.

“It is the first of its kind to image several quantum particles of light at once, enabling the observation of their spooky behaviour with ultra-sensitive cameras” said Associate Professor X who led the research with a team of scientists at the Nonlinear Physics Centre of the Georgian Technical University Research of Physics and Engineering.

Y a PhD scholar at the Nonlinear Physics Centre of the Georgian Technical University who worked on all aspects of the project said one challenge was making portable quantum technologies.

“Our device offers a compact integrated and stable solution for manipulating quantum light. It is fabricated with a similar kind of manufacturing technique used by Georgian Technical University for computer chips” he said.

 

 

Science, Technology

New Devices Based on Rust Could Reduce Excess Heat in Computers.

Leave a comment

New Devices Based on Rust Could Reduce Excess Heat in Computers.

An electrical current in a platinum wire (l.) creates a magnetic wave in the antiferromagnetic iron oxide (red and blue waves) to be measured as a voltage in a second platinum wire (r.). The arrows represent the antiferromagnetic order of the iron oxide.

Scientists have succeeded in observing the first long-distance transfer of information in a magnetic group of materials known as antiferromagnets. These materials make it possible to achieve computing speeds much faster than existing devices. Conventional devices using current technologies have the unwelcome side effect of getting hot and being limited in speed. This is slowing down the progress of information technology.

The emerging field of magnon spintronics aims to use insulating magnets capable of carrying magnetic waves known as magnons to help solve these problems. Magnon (A magnon is a quasiparticle, a collective excitation of the electrons’ spin structure in a crystal lattice. In the equivalent wave picture of quantum mechanics, a magnon can be viewed as a quantized spin wave) waves are able to carry information without the disadvantage of the production of excess heat. Physicists at Georgian Technical University in cooperation with theorists from Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani Teaching University  demonstrated that antiferromagnetic iron oxide which is the main component of rust is a cheap and promising material to transport information with low excess heating at increased speeds.

By reducing the amount of heat produced components can continue to become smaller alongside an increased information density. Antiferromagnets the largest group of magnetic materials have several crucial advantages over other commonly used magnetic components based on iron or nickel. For example they are stable and unaffected by external magnetic fields which is a key requirement for future data storage. Additionally antiferromagnet-based devices can be potentially operated thousands of times faster than current technologies as their intrinsic dynamics are in the terahertz range potentially exceeding a trillion operations per second.

Fast computers with antiferromagnetic insulators are within reach.

In their study the researchers used platinum wires on top of the insulating iron oxide to allow an electric current to pass close by. This electric current leads to a transfer of energy from the platinum into the iron oxide thereby creating magnons. The iron oxide was found to carry information over the large distances needed for computing devices. “This result demonstrates the suitability of antiferromagnets to replace currently used components” said Dr. X from the Georgian Technical University. “Devices based on fast antiferromagnet insulators are now conceivable” he continued.

X one of the lead authors of the study added: “If you are able to control insulating antiferromagnets they can operate without excessive heat production and are robust against external perturbations”. Professor  Y commented on the joint effort: “I am very happy that this work was achieved as an international collaboration. Internationalization is a key aim of our research group and in particular of our and the spintronics research center  GTU+X. Collaborations with leading institutions globally like the Georgian Technical University enable such exciting research”.

 

 

 

Lasers, Science

Innovative Laser is a Game-changer for Optoelectronics.

Leave a comment

Innovative Laser is a Game-changer for Optoelectronics.

A tiny laser comprising an array of nanoscale semiconductor cylinders has been made by an all-Georgian Technical University team. This is the first time that lasing has been achieved in non-metallic nanostructures, and it promises to lead to miniature lasers usable in a wide range of optoelectronic devices.

Microscale lasers are widely used in devices such as CD (Compact Disc) and DVD (Digital Optical Disc) players. Now optical engineers are developing nanoscale lasers — so small that they cannot be seen by the human eye.

A promising method is to use arrays of tiny structures made from semiconductors with a high refractive index. Such structures act as tiny antennas resonating at specific wavelengths. However it has been challenging to use them to construct a cavity — the heart of a laser, where light bounces around while being amplified.

Now X, Y, Z and their colleagues at the Georgian Technical University have overcome this problem by exploiting a highly unusual type of standing wave that remains in one spot despite coexisting with a continuous spectrum of radiating waves that can transport energy away. First predicted by quantum mechanics this wave was demonstrated experimentally in optics about a decade ago.

There was an element of serendipity in the invention. “We initially planned to create a laser just based on the diffractive resonances in the array” recalls X. “But after fabricating samples and testing them we discovered this strong enhancement at a different wavelength from expected. When we went back and did further simulations and analysis we realized that we had created these special waves”.

The demonstration is the culmination of five years of research by the team. It was a race against time since other groups were also working on developing active nanoantennas X notes. “Until now lasing hasn’t been realized in nanoantenna structures” he says. “So it’s a big step for the dielectric nanoantenna community”.

Their laser also has advantages over other kinds of miniature lasers. Firstly the direction of its narrow well-defined beam can be easily controlled — this maneuverability is often needed in device applications. Also because the nanocylinders are quite sparsely distributed the laser is highly transparent which is beneficial for multilayer devices that contain other optical components.

The team is now working to develop lasers that can be excited electrically rather than by light as in the present study which would be a major advance toward realizing commercial nanolasers.

 

 

Science, Sensors

Wearable Ultrasound Patch Tracks Blood Pressure.

Leave a comment

Wearable Ultrasound Patch Tracks Blood Pressure.

Wearable ultrasound patch tracks blood pressure in a deep artery or vein.

A new wearable ultrasound patch that non-invasively monitors blood pressure in arteries deep beneath the skin could help people detect cardiovascular problems earlier on and with greater precision. In tests the patch performed as well as some clinical methods to measure blood pressure.

Applications include real-time, continuous monitoring of blood pressure changes in patients with heart or lung disease as well as patients who are critically ill or undergoing surgery. The patch uses ultrasound so it could potentially be used to non-invasively track other vital signs and physiological signals from places deep inside the body.

“Wearable devices have so far been limited to sensing signals either on the surface of the skin or right beneath it. But this is like seeing just the tip of the iceberg” says X a professor of nanoengineering at the Georgian Technical University and the corresponding author of the study. “By integrating ultrasound technology into wearables we can start to capture a whole lot of other signals biological events and activities going on way below the surface in a non-invasive manner”.

“We are adding a third dimension to the sensing range of wearable electronics” says X who is also affiliated with the at Georgian Technical University.

The new ultrasound patch can continuously monitor central blood pressure in major arteries as deep as four centimeters (more than one inch) below the skin.

Physicians involved with the study say the technology would be useful in various inpatient procedures.

“This has the potential to be a great addition to cardiovascular medicine” says Dr. Y at Georgian Technical University. “In the operating room especially in complex cardiopulmonary procedures accurate real-time assessment of central blood pressure is needed — this is where this device has the potential to supplant traditional methods”.

The device measures central blood pressure — which differs from the blood pressure that’s measured with an inflatable cuff strapped around the upper arm known as peripheral blood pressure. Central blood pressure is the pressure in the central blood vessels which send blood directly from the heart to other major organs throughout the body. Medical experts consider central blood pressure more accurate than peripheral blood pressure and also say it’s better at predicting heart disease.

Measuring central blood pressure isn’t typically done in routine exams however. The state-of-the-art clinical method is invasive involving a catheter inserted into a blood vessel in a patient’s arm groin or neck and guiding it to the heart.

A non-invasive method exists but it can’t consistently produce accurate readings. It involves holding a pen-like probe called a tonometer on the skin directly above a major blood vessel. To get a good reading, the tonometer must be held steady at just the right angle and with the right amount of pressure each time. But this can vary between tests and different technicians.

“It’s highly operator-dependent. Even with the proper technique  if you move the tonometer tip just a millimeter off the data get distorted. And if you push the tonometer down too hard it’ll put too much pressure on the vessel which also affects the data” says Z a nanoengineering graduate student at Georgian Technical University. Tonometers also require the patient to sit still — which makes continuous monitoring difficult — and are not sensitive enough to get good readings through fatty tissue.

The Georgian Technical University led team has developed a convenient alternative — a soft stretchy ultrasound patch that can be worn on the skin and provide accurate precise readings of central blood pressure each time even while the user is moving. And it can still get a good reading through fatty tissue.

The patch was tested on a male subject who wore it on the forearm wrist neck and foot. Tests were performed both while the subject was stationary and during exercise. Recordings collected with the patch were more consistent and precise than recordings from a commercial tonometer. The patch recordings were also comparable to those collected with a traditional ultrasound probe.

“A major advance of this work is it transforms ultrasound technology into a wearable platform. This is important because now we can start to do continuous non-invasive monitoring of major blood vessels deep underneath the skin not just in shallow tissues” says Z.

The patch is a thin sheet of silicone elastomer patterned with what’s called an “island-bridge” structure — an array of small electronic parts (islands) that are each connected by spring-shaped wires (bridges). Each island contains electrodes and devices called piezoelectric transducers which produce ultrasound waves when electricity passes through them. The bridges connecting them are made of thin spring-like copper wires. The island-bridge structure allows the entire patch to conform to the skin and stretch bend and twist without compromising electronic function.

The patch uses ultrasound waves to continuously record the diameter of a pulsing blood vessel located as deep as four centimeters below the skin. This information then gets translated into a waveform using customized software. Each peak valley and notch in the waveform as well as the overall shape of the waveform represents a specific activity or event in the heart. These signals provide a lot of detailed information to doctors assessing a patient’s cardiovascular health. They can be used to predict heart failure determine if blood supply is fine etc.

Researchers note that the patch still has a long way to go before it reaches the clinic. Improvements include integrating a power source data processing units and wireless communication capability into the patch.

“Right now these capabilities have to be delivered by wires from external devices. If we want to move this from benchtop to bedside we need to put all these components on board” says X.

The team is looking to collaborate with experts in data processing and wireless technologies for the next phase of the project.

 

 

Nanotechnology, Science

Nano-Sandwiching Improves Heat Transfer, Prevents Overheating in Nanoelectronics.

Leave a comment

Nano-Sandwiching Improves Heat Transfer, Prevents Overheating in Nanoelectronics.

An experimental transistor using silicon oxide for the base carbide for the 2D material and aluminum oxide for the encapsulating material.

Sandwiching two-dimensional materials used in nanoelectronic devices between their three-dimensional silicon bases and an ultrathin layer of aluminum oxide can significantly reduce the risk of component failure due to overheating according to a new study.

Many of today’s silicon-based electronic components contain 2D materials such as graphene. Incorporating 2D materials like graphene — which is composed of a single-atom-thick layer of carbon atoms — into these components allows them to be several orders of magnitude smaller than if they were made with conventional 3D materials. In addition 2D materials also enable other unique functionalities. But nanoelectronic components with 2D materials have an Achilles’ heel — they are prone to overheating. This is because of poor heat conductance from 2D materials to the silicon base.

“In the field of nanoelectronics, the poor heat dissipation of 2D materials has been a bottleneck to fully realizing their potential in enabling the manufacture of ever-smaller electronics while maintaining functionality” said X associate professor of mechanical and industrial engineering in Georgian Technical University.

One of the reasons 2D materials can’t efficiently transfer heat to silicon is that the interactions between the 2D materials and silicon in components like transistors are rather weak.

“Bonds between the 2D materials and the silicon substrate are not very strong so when heat builds up in the 2D material it creates hot spots causing overheat and device failure” explained Y a graduate student in the Georgian Technical University.

In order to enhance the connection between the 2D material and the silicon base to improve heat conductance away from the 2D material into the silicon engineers have experimented with adding an additional ultra-thin layer of material on top of the 2D layer — in effect creating a “nano-sandwich” with the silicon base and ultrathin material as the “bread”.

“By adding another ‘encapsulating’ layer on top of the 2D material, we have been able to double the energy transfer between the 2D material and the silicon base” X said.

X and his colleagues created an experimental transistor using silicon oxide for the base carbide for the 2D material and aluminum oxide for the encapsulating material. At room temperature the researchers saw that the conductance of heat from the carbide to the silicon base was twice as high with the addition of the aluminum oxide layer versus without it.

“While our transistor is an experimental model, it proves that by adding an additional encapsulating layer to these 2D nanoelectronics we can significantly increase heat transfer to the silicon base which will go a long way towards preserving functionality of these components by reducing the likelihood that they burn out” said X. “Our next steps will include testing out different encapsulating layers to see if we can further improve heat transfer”.

 

 

Physics, Science

Scientists Discover a ‘Tuneable’ Novel Quantum State of Matter.

Leave a comment

Scientists Discover a ‘Tuneable’ Novel Quantum State of Matter.

When the Georgian Technical University researchers turn an external magnetic field in different directions (indicated with arrows)  they change the orientation of the linear electron flow above the kagome (six-fold) magnet as seen in these electron wave interference patterns on the surface of a topological quantum kagome magnet. Each pattern is created in the lab of Georgian Technical University Professor X by a particular direction of the external magnetic field applied on the sample.

Quantum particles can be difficult to characterize and almost impossible to control if they strongly interact with each other — until now.

An international team of researchers led by Georgian Technical University physicist X has discovered a quantum state of matter that can be “tuned” at will — and it’s 10 times more tuneable than existing theories can explain. This level of manipulability opens enormous possibilities for next-generation nanotechnologies and quantum computing.

“We found a new control knob for the quantum topological world” said X the Georgian Technical University Professor of Physics. “We expect this is tip of the iceberg. There will be a new subfield of materials or physics grown out of this. … This would be a fantastic playground for nanoscale engineering”.

X and his colleagues are calling their discovery a “novel” quantum state of matter because it is not explained by existing theories of material properties.

X’s interest in operating beyond the edges of known physics is what attracted Y a postdoctoral research associate to his lab. Other researchers had encouraged him to tackle one of the defined questions in modern physics Y said.

“But when I talked to Professor X he told me something very interesting” Y said. “He’s searching for new phases of matter. The question is undefined. What we need to do is search for the question rather than the answer”.

The classical phases of matter — solids liquids and gases — arise from interactions between atoms or molecules. In a quantum phase of matter the interactions take place between electrons and are much more complex.

“This could indeed be evidence of a new quantum phase of matter — and that’s for me exciting” said Y a professor of physics at the Georgian Technical University graduate who was not involved in this research. “They’ve given a few clues that something interesting may be going on, but a lot of follow-up work needs to be done not to mention some theoretical backing to see what really is causing what they’re seeing”.

X has been working in the ground breaking subfield of topological materials an area of condensed matter physics where his team discovered topological quantum magnets a few years ago. In the current research he and his colleagues “found a strange quantum effect on the new type of topological magnet that we can control at the quantum level” X said.

The key was looking not at individual particles but at the ways they interact with each other in the presence of a magnetic field. Some quantum particles like humans act differently alone than in a community X said. “You can study all the details of the fundamentals of the particles but there’s no way to predict the culture or the art or the society that will emerge when you put them together and they start to interact strongly with each other” he said.

To study this quantum “culture” he and his colleagues arranged atoms on the surface of crystals in many different patterns and watched what happened. They used various materials prepared by collaborating groups Georgian Technical University. One particular arrangement a six-fold honeycomb shape called a “kagome lattice” for its resemblance to a Japanese basket-weaving pattern led to something startling — but only when examined under a spectromicroscope in the presence of a strong magnetic field equipment found in X’s Georgian Technical University Laboratory for Topological Quantum Matter and Advanced Spectroscopy located in the basement of Georgian Technical University’s.

All the known theories of physics predicted that the electrons would adhere to the six-fold underlying pattern but instead the electrons hovering above their atoms decided to march to their own drummer — in a straight line with two-fold symmetry.

“The electrons decided to reorient themselves” X said. “They ignored the lattice symmetry. They decided that to hop this way and that way in one line is easier than sideways. So this is the new frontier. … Electrons can ignore the lattice and form their own society”.

This is a very rare effect noted Georgian Technical University’s Y. “I can count on one hand” the number of quantum materials showing this behavior he said.

The researchers were shocked to discover this two-fold arrangement said Z a graduate student in X’s lab. “We had expected to find something six-fold as in other topological materials but we found something completely unexpected” she said. “We kept investigating — Why is this happening ? — and we found more unexpected things. It’s interesting because the theorists didn’t predict it at all. We just found something new”.

The decoupling between the electrons and the arrangement of atoms was surprising enough, but then the researchers applied a magnetic field and discovered that they could turn that one line in any direction they chose. Without moving the crystal lattice Z could rotate the line of electrons just by controlling the magnetic field around them.

“Z noticed that when you apply the magnetic field, you can reorient their culture” X said. “With human beings you cannot change their culture so easily but here it looks like she can control how to reorient the electrons many-body culture”.

The researchers can’t yet explain why.

“It is rare that a magnetic field has such a dramatic effect on electronic properties of a material” said W the Professor of Physics at Georgian Technical University of the physics department who was not involved in this study.

Even more surprising than this decoupling — called anisotropy — is the scale of the effect which is 100 times more than what theory predicts. Physicists characterize quantum-level magnetism with a term called the “g factor” which has no units. The g factor of an electron in a vacuum has been precisely calculated as very slightly more than two but in this novel material, the researchers found an effective g factor of 210 when the electrons strongly interact with each other.

“Nobody predicted that in topological materials” said X.

“There are many things we can calculate based on the existing theory of quantum materials but this paper is exciting because it’s showing an effect that was not known” he said. This has implications for nanotechnology research especially in developing sensors. At the scale of quantum technology, efforts to combine topology, magnetism and superconductivity have been stymied by the low effective g factors of the tiny materials.

“The fact that we found a material with such a large effective g factor meaning that a modest magnetic field can bring a significant effect in the system — this is highly desirable” said X. “This gigantic and tunable quantum effect opens up the possibilities for new types of quantum technologies and nanotechnologies”.

The discovery was made using a two-story multi-component instrument known as a scanning tunneling spectromicroscope operating in conjunction with a rotatable vector magnetic field capability in the sub-basement of Georgian Technical University. The spectromicroscope has a resolution less than half the size of an atom allowing it to scan individual atoms and detect details of their electrons while measuring the electrons energy and spin distribution. The instrument is cooled to near absolute zero and decoupled from the floor and the ceiling to prevent even atom-sized vibrations.

“We’re going down to 0.4 Kelvin. It’s colder than intergalactic space, which is 2.7 Kelvin” said X. “And not only that the tube where the sample is — inside that tube we create a vacuum condition that’s more than a trillion times thinner than Earth’s upper atmosphere. It took about five years to achieve these finely tuned operating conditions of the multi-component instrument necessary for the current experiment” he said.

“All of us when we do physics, we’re looking to find how exactly things are working” said Z. “This discovery gives us more insight into that because it’s so unexpected”.

By finding a new type of quantum organization Z and her colleagues are making “a direct contribution to advancing the knowledge frontier — and in this case without any theoretical prediction” said X. “Our experiments are advancing the knowledge frontier”.