A research team from NIMS, Tohoku University and AIST has developed a new technique for controlling the nanostructures and magnetic domain structures of iron-based soft amorphous ribbons, achieving more than a 50% reduction in core loss compared with the initial amorphous material. The developed material exhibits particularly high performance in the high-frequency range of several tens of kilohertz—required for next-generation, high-frequency transformers and EV drive power supply circuits. This breakthrough is expected to contribute to the advancement of these technologies, development of more energy-efficient electric machines and progress toward carbon neutrality. This research was published in Nature Communications on September 3, 2025.

A new international study led by the Nanobiosystems group at CIC nanoGUNE, is developing miniature, non-invasive, precise robotic catheters for use in reproductive medicine and gynaecological health. This research, which was recently published in the prestigious journal Advanced Materials, has the potential to improve infertility treatments, for example, and enable the highly localised release of drugs and cells.

Researchers at Fraunhofer IOF have developed a self-adapting cladding light stripper (CLS) that addresses a major challenge in scaling thulium fiber lasers beyond their long-standing 1 kW power limit. Thulium lasers operate at 2 µm, where conventional polymer-based CLS designs overheat at just a few watts due to strong absorption. The new CLS uses a single material with a refractive index slightly above glass and a strongly negative thermo-optical coefficient, allowing its efficiency to decrease locally as temperature rises and shifting excess light to cooler regions. This spreads heat along the fiber, preventing damage and enabling record performance: over 20 W of stripped signal light at 2 µm and 675 W at 793 nm, with stripping efficiencies above 40 dB when fibers are bent. Adaptable to other wavelengths, this technology could help unlock next-generation high-power fiber lasers, including inband-pumped thulium systems.

Sound and noise have a major impact on our ability to focus and communicate, which is why acoustic requirements often feature in green building standards. Acoustic consultant George Edgar evaluated multiple materials, including timber, steel, and concrete, for their sound insulating properties along with their global warming potential. He found that concrete could have a far higher GWP than timber, and walls that incorporated timber outperformed standard steel studs, even when they needed more wall linings to achieve the same acoustic performance.

- University of Leicester and welding specialist TWI Ltd collaborating on a robot-mounted arc-welding system

- Designed to support in-space repair, joining and future orbital manufacturing