In the news

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A computer chip processes and stores information using two different devices. If engineers could combine these devices into one or put them next to each other, then there would be more space on a chip, making it faster and more powerful. Purdue University engineers have developed a way that the millions of tiny switches used to process information – called transistors – could also store that information as one device.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The gas turbines powering aircraft engines rely on ceramic coatings that ensure structural stability at high temperatures. But these coatings don’t control heat radiation, limiting the performance of the engine. Researchers at Purdue University have engineered ceramic “nanotubes” that behave as thermal antennas, offering control over the spectrum and direction of high-temperature heat radiation. The work is published in Nano Letters, a journal by the American Chemical Society. An illustration of the ceramic nanotubes will be featured as the journal’s supplementary cover in a forthcoming issue.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- A new type of material for next-generation solar cells eliminates the need to use lead, which has been a major roadblock for this technology. Solar cells, incorporating the mineral perovskite, have been the focus of attention since the material was first shown to work in 2009. Solar cells that are built using this material are more efficient than current solar panels. Current solar panels capture 15% to 18% of the solar energy on average, while perovskite solar cells have been found to be as much as 28% efficient.

Prof. Vladimir Shalaev, the Robert and Anne Burnett Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, will receive the 2020 Frank Isakson Prize for Optical Effects in Solids. The prize from the American Physical Society honors outstanding optical research that leads to breakthroughs in the condensed matter sciences.

Researchers demonstrate the first hardware for a ‘probabilistic computer’ WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — It may still be decades before quantum computers are ready to solve problems that today’s classical computers aren’t fast or efficient enough to solve, but the emerging “probabilistic computer” could bridge the gap between classical and quantum computing. Engineers at Purdue University and Tohoku University in Japan have built the first hardware to demonstrate how the fundamental units of what would be a probabilistic computer – called p-bits – are capable of performing a calculation that quantum computers would usually be called upon to perform.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – People with hand amputations experience difficult daily life challenges, often leading to lifelong use of a prosthetic hands and services. An electronic glove, or e-glove, developed by Purdue University researchers can be worn over a prosthetic hand to provide humanlike softness, warmth, appearance and sensory perception, such as the ability to sense pressure, temperature and hydration. The technology is published in the Aug. 30 edition of NPG Asia Materials.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Human pathogens, such as HIV and viruses causing respiratory tract infection, have molecular fingerprints that are difficult to distinguish. To better detect these pathogens, sensors in diagnostic tools need to manipulate light on a nanoscale. But there isn’t a good way to manufacture these light manipulation devices without damaging the sensors. Purdue University engineers have a solution: Stickers.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Current drugs to treat malignant tumors may be successful at reaching the tumor site but often fail to fully reach the cancerous cells in tumors. The problem persists because tumor models used in cancer research and produced by cell culture in laboratories are not nearly the size of the actual tumors in patients. So even when a drug appears to be effective in the tiny tumors in research labs, they may perform much differently for patients.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The field of topology or the study of how surfaces behave in different dimensions has profoundly influenced the current understanding of matter. The prime example is the topological insulator, which conducts electricity only on the surface while being completely insulating inside the bulk. Topological insulators behave like a metal, i.e., silver on the surface, but inside, it would behave like glass. These properties are defined using the conductivity or flow of electrons depicting whether there is a highway or a road-block for their motion. One major driver of future applications for topological insulators is in the field of spin-electronic devices since these electrons spin in unison, all aligned with each other while flowing on the surface.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — On the frontier of quantum computing, scientists are exploring how electronic excitations – collective behavior of many electrons acting in concert– behave differently in comparison to ordinary electrons. In certain regimes of ultra-low temperature and high magnetic field, electronic excitations in a two-dimensional plane act as if they carry on a fraction of the ordinary electron charge and obey unusual properties when any two particles are exchanged. Some of these properties may be useful for quantum information processing.