Scandium aluminium nitride (ScAlN) has emerged as a promising barrier material for improving the performance of gallium-nitride (GaN)-based high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs). However, current methods for growing ScAlN layers on GaN require expensive equipment and high temperatures. In a new study, researchers investigated how sputtering can be used to successfully grow ScAlN layers on GaN at relatively lower temperatures and reduced costs, paving the way towards commercialization of high-performance ScAlN-based GaN devices.

This study reveals that female Helicoverpa armigera moths utilize plant-emitted CO₂ as a key cue for egg-laying, preferring young leaves with higher CO₂ emissions to enhance offspring survival. However, the increase of CO₂ concentration in the atmosphere disrupts this oviposition strategy. Three gustatory receptors (HarmGR1, HarmGR2, and HarmGR3) were essential for CO₂ detection in H. armigera. Disrupting any of these receptors impaired CO₂ sensing and oviposition behavior. These findings highlight how climate change may alter insect reproduction and crop pest dynamics.

Solid-oxide fuel cells are a promising material for future green energy infrastructure due to their high efficiency and long lifespan. However, they require operation at high temperatures of around 700-800℃. Now researchers at Kyushu University have succeeded in developing a new SOFC material with an efficient operating temperature of 300℃. The team expects that their new findings will greatly accelerate the practical application of green energy devices.

Physicists have for the first time directly observed the quantum Kelvin–Helmholtz instability, using ultracold lithium gases. The phenomenon produced eccentric fractional skyrmions — crescent-shaped quantum vortices with embedded singularities — resembling shapes in Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night.” These findings deepen our understanding of quantum turbulence and may inform future developments in topology and quantum technologies.

Recently, scientists in China experimentally realized a class of three-dimensional spatiotemporal wavepackets with spherical harmonic symmetry. This achievement is made by exploiting the mathematical analogy between the paraxial wave equation for spatiotemporal optical fields and the potential-free Schrödinger equation in quantum mechanics, utilizing their self-developed spatiotemporal light field modulation apparatus. Such spherically symmetric spatiotemporal light fields show promising potential for applications in photonic quantum emulator and particle manipulation, among other fields.

Researchers at Goethe University Frankfurt have, for the first time, directly visualized the so-called quantum zero-point motion in a larger molecule. This motion is exhibited by particles even at absolute zero temperature. In a collaborative experiment with the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, the University of Hamburg, the European XFEL, and other partners, they managed to make this “eternal dance” of the atoms visible. The discovery was made possible by the COLTRIMS reaction microscope developed in Frankfurt, which is capable of reconstructing molecular structures. The findings have now been published in the journal Science.