news 2021

Through their research efforts, the team was able to finally disprove an intuitive assumption that in order for two particles of matter to merge and form larger units (i.e. aggregates or clusters), they must be attracted to each other. As early as the turn of the century, a team of soft matter physicists headed by Christos Likos of the University of Vienna predicted on the basis of theoretical considerations that this does not necessarily have to be the case.

The boundary between forward and backward blurs in quantum mechanics A team of physicists at the Universities of Vienna, Bristol, the Balearic Islands and the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI-Vienna) has shown how quantum systems can simultaneously evolve along two opposite time arrows (forward and backward in time).

Chemists demonstrate new approach to self-assembly of colloidal nanoparticles Sometimes even small forces can make comparatively big things happen: In a study in "Angewandte Chemie", scientists from the Faculty of Chemistry at the University of Vienna showed how short peptides can trigger the self-assembly of comparatively large nanoparticles into new structures on the micrometre scale.

Quantum computers become ever more powerful, but how can we be sure that the answers they return are accurate? A team of physicists from Vienna, Innsbruck, Oxford, and Singapore solves this problem by letting quantum computers check each other. Quantum computers are advancing at a rapid pace and are already starting to push the limits of the world's largest supercomputers.

Researchers at the University of Vienna's Faculty of Physics in collaboration with colleagues from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the USA have uncovered a non-destructive mechanism to manipulate donor impurities within silicon using focused electron irradiation. In this novel indirect exchange process not one but two neighbouring silicon atoms are involved in a coordinated atomic "waltz", which may open a path for the fabrication of solid-state qubits.

Three dimensional (3D) nano-network promise a new era in modern solid state physics with numerous applications in photonics, bio-medicine, and spintronics. The realization of 3D magnetic nano-architectures could enable ultra-fast and low-energy data storage devices. Due to competing magnetic interactions in these systems magnetic charges or magnetic monopoles can emerge, which can be utilized as mobile, binary information carriers.

The quantum movements of a small glass sphere could be controlled for the first time in Vienna by combining microscopy with control engineering, setting the course for future quantum technologies. A football is not a quantum particle. There are crucial differences between the things we know from everyday life and tiny quantum objects.

By Christoph Pelzl The absorption of energy from laser light by free electrons in a liquid has been demonstrated for the first time. Until now, this process was observed only in the gas phase. The findings, led by Graz University of Technology, open new doors for ultra-fast electron microscopy. The investigation and development of materials crucially depends on the ability to observe smallest objects at fastest time scales.

Properties of materials are often defined by imperfections in their atomic structure, especially when the material itself is just one atom thick, such as graphene. Researchers at the University of Vienna have now developed a method for controlled creation of such imperfections into graphene at length scales approaching the macroscopic world.

The phenomenon of quantum nonlocality defies our everyday intuition. It shows the strong correlations between several quantum particles some of which change their state instantaneously when the others are measured, regardless of the distance between them. While this phenomenon has been confirmed for slow moving particles, it has been debated whether nonlocality is preserved when particles move very fast at velocities close to the speed of light, and even more so when those velocities are quantum mechanically indefinite.

By Susanne Eigner Researchers from TU Graz in Austria and the Universities of Cambridge and Surrey succeeded to track down the first step in ice formation at a surface, revealing that additional energy is needed for water before ice can start to form. Picture material for download at the end of the message Water freezes and turns to ice when brought in contact with a cold surface - a well-known fact.

In an international cooperation with partners from industry and research, physicists from the University of Vienna, together with Thorlabs, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the University of Kansas, have now succeeded for the first time in demonstrating high-performance laser mirrors in the sensing-relevant mid-infrared wavelength range that absorb less than ten out of a million photons.

Quantum mechanics is famous for its indeterminism, but we can usually use probabilities to quantify our uncertainty about future observations. However, a team of researchers at the University of Vienna, the IQOQI Vienna (Austrian Academy of Sciences) and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical physics have recently shown that in certain extreme quantum scenarios it is not possible to make such probabilistic predictions, provided that certain key assumptions of quantum mechanics hold true.

The acidity of molecules can be easily determined, but until now it was not possible to measure this important property for atoms on a surface. With a new microscopy technique from the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien), this has now been achieved. The degree of acidity or alkalinity of a substance is crucial for its chemical behavior.

Is it possible to transmit information through a material in the form of electron spins? New measurements show: not in the way that scientists had been working on for decades. It is an old dream of solid-state physics: "spin liquids" are a hypothetical state of matter with exotic magnetic properties.

By Susanne Eigner Using machine learning methods, researchers at TU Graz can predict the structure formation of functionalized molecules at the interfaces of hybrid materials. Now they have also succeeded in looking behind the driving forces of this structure formation. The production of nanomaterials involves self-assembly processes of functionalized (organic) molecules on inorganic surfaces.

Researchers at Utrecht University and at TU Wien (Vienna) create special light waves that can penetrate even opaque materials as if the material was not even there. Why is sugar not transparent? Because light that penetrates a piece of sugar is scattered, altered and deflected in a highly complicated way.

How can we remove heat from computer chips as fast as possible' At TU Wien, a metal compound has now been identified that is particularly well suited for this purpose. A thermos bottle has the task of preserving the temperature - but sometimes you want to achieve the opposite: Computer chips generate heat that must be dissipated as quickly as possible so that the chip is not destroyed.

By Susanne Eigner Researchers at TU Graz and the University of Graz, together with experts from France, have succeeded in imaging surface phonons in 3D for the first time. This success could accelerate the development of new, efficient nanotechnologies. Whether for microscopy, data storage or sensor technology, many advanced technological applications that require specific functions rely on the structure of the electromagnetic field near the surfaces of materials.

2D materials have triggered a boom in materials research. Now it turns out that exciting effects occur when two such layered materials are stacked and slightly twisted. The discovery of the material graphene, which consists of only one layer of carbon atoms, was the starting signal for a global race: Today, so-called "2D materials" are produced, made of different types of atoms.