A research team from Peking University Yangtze Delta Institute of Optoelectronics has achieved the device-level implementation of a silica microsphere probe, demonstrating exceptional capabilities in high-sensitivity ultrasonic detection and ultrahigh-frequency vibrational spectroscopy. This advancement facilitates the transition of microsphere resonator technology from controlled laboratory environments to practical instrumentation, showing significant potential for applications in photoacoustic imaging, endoscopic sensing, and non-destructive evaluation.

With the rapid spread of generative AI, the demand for more energy-efficient methods of powering the hardware is becoming apparent. Now, researchers have succeeded in applying on-axis magnetron sputtering on thulium iron garnet (TmIG)—a promising material that can enable high-speed, low-power information rewriting at room temperature—to build more energy-efficient magnetic random-access memory.

Levitation has long been pursued by stage magicians and physicists alike. For audiences, the sight of objects floating midair is wondrous. For scientists, it’s a powerful way of isolating objects from external disturbances. This is particularly useful in case of rotors, as their torque and angular momentum, used to measure gravity, gas pressure, momentum, among other phenomena in both classical and quantum physics, can be strongly influenced by friction. Freely suspending the rotor could drastically reduce these disturbances – and now, researchers from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) have designed, created, and analyzed such a macroscopic device, bringing the magic of near-frictionless levitation down to earth through precision engineering. 

Researchers have created a polymer “Chinese lantern” that can snap into more than a dozen curved, three-dimensional shapes by compressing or twisting the original structure. This rapid shape-shifting behavior can be controlled remotely using a magnetic field, allowing the structure to be used for a variety of applications.

AI can be used to detect cervical cancer in women in resource-limited parts of the world. However, for this method to work, investments are needed in healthcare staff, reliable supply chains and trust in these communities. This has been shown in a new study from Uppsala University, Karolinska Institutet and the University of Helsinki, where researchers tested an AI-supported diagnostic method at rural hospitals in Kenya and Tanzania.

Tilted metasurface nanostructures, with excellent physical properties and enormous application potential, pose an urgent need for manufacturing methods. Here, electric-field-driven generative-nanoimprinting technique is proposed. The electric field applied between the template and the substrate drives the contact, tilting, filling, and holding processes. By accurately controlling the introduced included angle between the flexible template and the substrate, tilted nanostructures with a controllable angle are imprinted onto the substrate, although they are vertical on the template. By flexibly adjusting the electric field intensity and the included angle, large-area uniform-tilted, gradient-tilted, and high-angle-tilted nanostructures are fabricated. In contrast to traditional replication, the morphology of the nanoimprinting structure is extended to customized control. This work provides a cost-effective, efficient, and versatile technology for the fabrication of various large-area tilted metasurface structures. As an illustration, a tilted nanograting with a high coupling efficiency is fabricated and integrated into augmented reality displays, demonstrating superior imaging quality.