Lonely Atoms, Happily Reunited

02-Aug-2016 - The remarkable behaviour of platinum atoms on magnetite surfaces could lead to better catalysts. Scientists at TU Wien (Vienna) can now explain how platinum atoms can form pairs with the help of carbon monoxide. At first glance, magnetite appears to be a rather inconspicuous grey mineral. But on ...

Growing perfect crystals by filling the gaps

01-Jun-2016 - Crystals are solid materials composed of microscopic building blocks arranged in highly ordered patterns. They have countless applications, ranging from metallurgy to jewellery to electronics. Many of the properties that make crystals useful depend on the detailed pattern of arrangement of their ...

Worldwide success of Tyrolean wastewater treatment technology

01-Jun-2016 - The DEMON®-system was developed and patented by the University of Innsbruck 11 years ago. Today this successful technology has been implemented in about 70 wastewater treatments plants around the world. A new partnership has now been formed between the environmental engineers in Innsbruck and the ...

New insights concerning miracle material graphene

25-May-2016 - The interactions between graphene and its environment have a significant influence on the use of this promising material by the semiconductor industry. Thanks to the comprehensive findings of an international research project, these interactions are now better understood and can be controlled as ...

Atoms Chat Long Distance

11-Apr-2016 - In an international first, a research team of experimental physicists led by Francesca Ferlaino and theoretical physicists led by Peter Zoller has measured long-range magnetic interactions between ultracold particles confined in an optical lattice. Their work, published in Science, introduces a ...

Solar cell + battery: TU Graz researches hybrid systems

01-Apr-2016 - In the FFG project SolaBat, TU Graz is entering almost new research territory. Photovoltaic cells are to be combined into one device with electrochemical energy storage systems. Whether fair weather or foul, sustainable energy supply must be independent of natural fluctuations of renewable energy ...

The "great smoky dragon" of Quantum Physics

Physicists evaluated the quantum delayed-choice experiments for the first time

15-Mar-2016 - Physicists around Anton Zeilinger have, for the first time, evaluated the almost 100-year long history of quantum delayed-choice experiments – from the theoretical beginnings with Albert Einstein to the latest research works in the present. Since the 17th century, science was intrigued by the ...

Three 'twisted' photons in 3 dimensions

02-Mar-2016 - Researchers at the Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, the University of Vienna, and the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona have achieved a new milestone in quantum physics: they were able to entangle three particles of light in a high-dimensional quantum property related to the ...

Quantum experiments designed by machines

24-Feb-2016 - Quantum physicist Mario Krenn and his colleagues in the group of Anton Zeilinger from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Vienna and the Austrian Academy of Sciences have developed an algorithm which designs new useful quantum experiments. As the computer does not rely on human intuition, ...

The Quantum Fridge

03-Feb-2016 - It all comes down to quantum physics: scientists at TU Wien (Vienna) have analysed why some gases can be cooled down to extremely low temperatures. When cold milk is poured into a hot cup of tea, a temperature equilibrium is reached very quickly. The milk droplets and the tea particles interact, ...