Lifeboat Foundation

Euclid, a space mission led by the European Space Agency.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is an intergovernmental organization dedicated to the exploration and study of space. ESA was established in 1975 and has 22 member states, with its headquarters located in Paris, France. ESA is responsible for the development and coordination of Europe’s space activities, including the design, construction, and launch of spacecraft and satellites for scientific research and Earth observation. Some of ESA’s flagship missions have included the Rosetta mission to study a comet, the Gaia mission to create a 3D map of the Milky Way, and the ExoMars mission to search for evidence of past or present life on Mars.

Following the path of electronic integrated circuits (EICs), silicon (Si) photonics holds promises to enable photonic integrated circuits (PICs) with high densities, advanced functionality and portability. Although various Si photonics foundries are rapidly developing PIC capabilities—enabling volume production of modulators, photodetectors and most recently lasers—Si PICs have yet to achieve the stringent requirements on laser noise and overall system stability imposed by many applications such as microwave oscillators, atomic physics and precision metrology^9,10,11. Semiconductor lasers must strongly suppress amplified-spontaneous-emission noise to achieve narrow linewidth for these applications¹². They will also require isolation from the rest of the optical system, otherwise the laser source will be sensitive to back-reflections from downstream optical components that are beyond the control of the PIC designer¹³. In many integrated photonic solutions, a bulk optical isolator must be inserted between the laser chip and the rest of the system, significantly increasing the complexity, as well as the cost of assembly and packaging¹⁴.

To enrich the capabilities of Si PICs and avoid multi-chip optical packaging, non-group-IV materials need to be heterogeneously integrated to enable crucial devices, including high-performance lasers, amplifiers and isolators^15,16,17. It has now been widely acknowledged that group III–V materials are required to provide efficient optical gain for semiconductor lasers and amplifiers in Si photonics regardless of the integration architecture, but concerns still remain for a complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) fab to incorporate magnetic materials, which are currently used in industry-standard optical isolators¹⁸.

Fortunately, a synergistic path towards ultralow laser noise and low feedback sensitivity exists—using ultrahigh-quality-factor (Q) cavities for lasers that not only reduce the phase noise but also enhance the feedback tolerance to downstream links. These effects scale with the cavity Q and ultrahigh–Q cavities would thus endow integrated lasers with unprecedented coherence and stability^19,20. The significance is twofold. First, the direct integration of ultralow-noise lasers on Si PICs without the need for optical isolators simplifies PIC fabrication and packaging. Furthermore, this approach does not introduce magnetic materials to a CMOS fab as isolators are not obligatory for such complete PICs.

Utilizing ultra-high-precision laser spectroscopy on a simple molecule, a team of physicists headed by Professor Stephan Schiller Ph.D. of Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) measured the wave-like vibration of atomic nuclei with an unprecedented level of precision.

In their paper published in the scientific journal Nature Physics.

As the name implies, Nature Physics is a peer-reviewed, scientific journal covering physics and is published by Nature Research. It was first published in October 2005 and its monthly coverage includes articles, letters, reviews, research highlights, news and views, commentaries, book reviews, and correspondence.

Massive implications with this one.

It’s been a rough few days in the condensed matter physics realm following claims of the world’s first room-temperature superconductor being achieved. However, work to verify and replicate the results.

journey breaks several laws of physics in order to reach the known limit of the universe, using a spacecraft capable of travelling at any speed.
distance and speed are approximate, giving us an idea of how fast the spacecraft has to travel to move through the vast expanses of the universe.
the way, an AI will explain some important elements of the journey, to give us a more complete picture of what we are seeing.

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Scientists have claimed to make a breakthrough that would be “one of the holy grails of modern physics” – but experts have urged caution about the results.

In recent days, many commentators have become excited by two papers that claim to document the production of a new superconductor that works at room temperature and ambient pressure. Scientists in Korea said they had synthesised a new material called LK-99 that would represent one of the biggest physics breakthroughs of recent decades.

Superconductors are a special kind of material where electrical resistance vanishes, and which throw out magnetic fields. They are widely useful, including in the production of powerful magnets and in reducing the amount of energy lost as it moves through circuits.

The Big Bang marks the birth of the Universe, right? The physicists brave enough to look beyond it aren’t so sure.

Physicists have succeeded in making a new imaging technique ready for use on humans where radioactive markers and radiation are not necessary.