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Electrically and mechanically pushed rotation of polar spirals in… – Weblog • by NanoWorld®


Flux-closure buildings, vortices/antivortices, skyrmions, and merons in oxides, metals and polymers characterize non-trivial topologies through which an area polar/magnetic order undergoes quasi-continuous spatial variations in a bunch crystal lattice. These buildings are actually extensively studied as a result of emergent functionalities, however the software {of electrical}/mechanical fields has to this point solely served to destroy the polar topologies of curiosity. *

Topology created by quasi-continuous spatial variations of an area polarization path represents an unique state of matter, however field-driven manipulation has been hitherto restricted to creation and destruction. *Within the article “Electrically and mechanically pushed rotation of polar spirals in a relaxor ferroelectric polymer” Mengfan Guo, Erxiang Xu, Houbing Huang, Changqing Guo, Hetian Chen, Shulin Chen, Shan He, Le Zhou, Jing Ma, Zhonghui Shen, Ben Xu, Di Yi, Peng Gao, Ce-Wen Nan, Neil. D. Mathur and Yang Shen report that comparatively small electrical or mechanical fields can drive the non-volatile rotation of polar spirals in discretized microregions of the relaxor ferroelectric polymer poly(vinylidene fluoride-ran-trifluoroethylene).*

These polar spirals come up from the uneven Coulomb interplay between vertically aligned helical polymer chains, and may be rotated in-plane by means of varied angles with sturdy retention. *

Given additionally that their manipulation of topological order may be detected by way of infrared absorption, Mengfan Guo et al.’s work suggests a brand new path for the applying of complicated supplies. *

Mengfan Guo et al. produced a 100-nm-thick monolayer of face-on lamellae with vertically aligned polymer chains by melt-recrystallizing spin-coated skinny movies of P(VDF-TrFE).

The ensuing melt-recrystallized skinny movie of the relaxor ferroelectric polymer was characterised by the authors utilizing a industrial atomic power microscope for in-plane piezo-response power microscopy (IP-PFM).

NanoWorld Platinum Iridium coated Arrow-CONTPt AFM probes (typical resonant frequency: 14 kHz, typical power fixed: 0.2 N/m, typical AFM tip radius 25 nm) had been used for the in-plane (IP) PFM exams and the PFM lithography exams.

For piezo-response power microscopy (PFM) imaging, Vector mode was used the place AFM suggestions had been modulated at round 240 kHz for IP imaging, with the AC voltage set at 2 V. The pictures obtained by Vector Mode had been double checked through the use of twin AC resonance monitoring (DART) mode and the patterns may very well be reproduced. *

For angle-resolved IP-PFM exams, the rotation of pattern was managed by a protractor. To make sure similar place was imaged after rotating the pattern, the authors made cross-scratches as a mark on the pattern floor upfront. This technique was utilized to find the scanning place in different conditions if Mengfan Guo et al. needed to transfer the pattern in between the scanning probe microscopic research.

For electric-field-induced manipulations utilizing PFM lithography, the DC voltage on AFM tip was beforehand edited within the software program. The scan velocity was set at 1.95 Hz and no AC voltage was utilized through the scanning. The DC voltage was divided by movie thickness (100 nm) to acquire the electrical discipline worth. And an electrical discipline with downward path is outlined with a constructive signal.

For stress-induced manipulations, the deflection worth of the PFM cantilever, which is a sign from photodetector, was preset to manage the stress/power utilized onto the pattern. The distinction in deflection worth between a pressed AFM cantilever and a free AFM cantilever displays how exhausting the AFM tip and pattern floor are pressed to one another.*

To acquire the power worth F, Mengfan Guo et al. first calibrated the AFM suggestions by the thermal noise technique, and acquire the inverse optical lever sensitivity (InvOLS) and the spring fixed okay of the AFM suggestions.

The authors additionally carried out a polarization evaluation primarily based on their PFM measurements. *

To acquire the nominal toroidal order evaluated by the native curvature, the obtained IP-PFM amplitude picture was firstly divided into 33 × 33 arrays, and every area was then subjected to a recognition of potential area partitions and measurement of an averaged curvature radius. *

To acquire polarization maps, angle-resolved IP-PFM photographs had been first aligned to right spatial distortion in nanoscale measurement. Positions with particular morphological traits had been chosen as reference factors to find out the coordinate. After the correction, improved angle-resolved IP-PFM part photographs can be divided into 64 × 64 arrays for deriving polarization maps. *

Fig. 1 from Mengfan Guo et al. (2024) “Electrically and mechanically driven rotation of polar spirals in a relaxor ferroelectric polymer”:Observation of a microregion containing an in-plane polar spiral. a Morphology of a melt-recrystallized thin film of the relaxor ferroelectric polymer. The scale bar is 2 μm. IP-PFM phase (b) and amplitude (c) images of the same area in a exhibiting concentric ring-shaped domains in curly stripe domains. d Distribution of domain wall curvatures in the same area in a–c evidencing nominal toroidal order. It is assumed that the local polarization is parallel to the nearest domain wall so that larger curvature (denoted red) reflects stronger toroidal order. IP-PFM phase images of identical concentric ring-shaped domains with the axis along vertical (e) and horizontal (f) measurement directions. The scale bar is 0.3 μm. The curl (g) and the divergence (h) of local polarization in the same area as e and f, revealing the polar spiral topology. i Schematic stereoscopic view of a CCW polar spiral, arrows represent regions of polarization. The red/blue arrows denote the polar source/sink that spirals in/out. The white arrows represent Néel rotation along the radial direction, as shown in more detail via the inset. NanoWorld Platinum Iridium coated Arrow-CONTPt AFM probes (typical resonant frequency: 14 kHz, typical force constant: 0.2 N/m, typical AFM tip radius 25 nm) were used for the in-plane (IP) PFM tests and the PFM lithography tests.
Fig. 1 from Mengfan Guo et al. (2024) “Electrically and mechanically pushed rotation of polar spirals in a relaxor ferroelectric polymer”:
Statement of a microregion containing an in-plane polar spiral.
a Morphology of a melt-recrystallized skinny movie of the relaxor ferroelectric polymer. The size bar is 2 μm. IP-PFM part (b) and amplitude (c) photographs of the identical space in a exhibiting concentric ring-shaped domains in curly stripe domains. d Distribution of area wall curvatures in the identical space in a–c evidencing nominal toroidal order. It’s assumed that the native polarization is parallel to the closest area wall in order that bigger curvature (denoted purple) displays stronger toroidal order. IP-PFM part photographs of similar concentric ring-shaped domains with the axis alongside vertical (e) and horizontal (f) measurement instructions. The size bar is 0.3 μm. The curl (g) and the divergence (h) of native polarization in the identical space as e and f, revealing the polar spiral topology. i Schematic stereoscopic view of a CCW polar spiral, arrows characterize areas of polarization. The purple/blue arrows denote the polar supply/sink that spirals in/out. The white arrows characterize Néel rotation alongside the radial path, as proven in additional element by way of the inset.

*Mengfan Guo, Erxiang Xu, Houbing Huang, Changqing Guo, Hetian Chen, Shulin Chen, Shan He, Le Zhou, Jing Ma, Zhonghui Shen, Ben Xu, Di Yi, Peng Gao, Ce-Wen Nan, Neil. D. Mathur and Yang Shen
Electrically and mechanically pushed rotation of polar spirals in a relaxor ferroelectric polymer
Nature Communications quantity 15, Article quantity: 348 (2024)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-44395-5

The article “Electrically and mechanically pushed rotation of polar spirals in a relaxor ferroelectric polymer” by Mengfan Guo, Erxiang Xu, Houbing Huang, Changqing Guo, Hetian Chen, Shulin Chen, Shan He, Le Zhou, Jing Ma, Zhonghui Shen, Ben Xu, Di Yi, Peng Gao, Ce-Wen Nan, Neil. D. Mathur and Yang Shen is licensed below a Artistic Commons Attribution 4.0 Worldwide License, which allows use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and replica in any medium or format, so long as you give applicable credit score to the unique writer(s) and the supply, present a hyperlink to the Artistic Commons license, and point out if adjustments had been made. The pictures or different third-party materials on this article are included within the article’s Artistic Commons license, until indicated in any other case in a credit score line to the fabric. If materials just isn’t included within the article’s Artistic Commons license and your meant use just isn’t permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you have to to acquire permission immediately from the copyright holder. To view a duplicate of this license, go to https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Digital Instruments Speed up Supplies Discovery


From Serendipity to Systemic Design

We have now the privilege of overabundance of information and massive knowledge from a mixture of analysis establishments, firm initiatives, area experiments, and many others. The problem now: how can we course of and translate this knowledge into real-world purposes to find new supplies? We are able to’t look forward to finding the next-generation of supplies the best way we found penicillin—by probability.

In 2022, the complete income of the worldwide chemical compounds trade topped $5.72T. This translated to roughly 935 Mt of direct CO2 emissions, the third largest trade subsector emitter. To satisfy net-zero emissions, the worldwide chemical trade wants to cut back practically a fifth of emissions by 2030, regardless of a forecasted improve in manufacturing. However—massive shock—we’re not on observe to satisfy these objectives.

What’s extra, the chemical sector is the biggest industrial power shopper, notably in China. And within the U.S. alone, over 70,000 merchandise are produced from fossil fuels day by day. We rely so closely on fossil fuels for our on a regular basis lives, e.g., plastics, that’s it’s tough to supply new supplies and chemical compounds that compete with the merchandise we’ve turn out to be so accustomed to. Conventional supplies discovery takes years, usually many years, to progress. For instance, batteries haven’t seen important progress because the lithium-ion battery was invented within the Eighties.

However with the appearance of digital computational methods like synthetic intelligence (AI) and machine studying (ML) coupled with hybrid cloud applied sciences and computer systems, we’re witnessing a paradigm shift in fashionable supplies discovery. Maybe an important challenges in our lifetime might be to characterize the important thing chemistries behind photosynthesis (ammonia synthesis), uncover high-performance batteries, and even unlock dependable power sources like secure tokamaks for fusion reactors.

Knowledge-Pushed Discovery

Whereas chemical databases include billions of recognized and characterised compounds, Supplies Challenge has solely 150K supplies in its recognized supplies database. There could also be an extra of 10­108 potential carbon-based molecules that could possibly be of great profit that require superior analytics to course of past serendipity.

In 2023, Google DeepMind produced 380K secure supplies for all the pieces from batteries to superconductors. However there nonetheless exist important gaps in experimentation, modeling, and bodily reproducibility. The mixing of digital methods like AI might help not solely in knowledge mining from databases like ChemMine or IBM DeepSearch, but additionally in offering language fashions to assist us effectively uncover like IBM RXN.

Nonetheless, analysis means that in apply generative fashions are most helpful when accompanied by the deep experience of people for knowledge cleansing and validation. That is the explanation that UK-based Supplies Nexus, who I just lately chatted with, is reverse-engineering supplies with its staff of supplies scientists. It’s raised $2.7M and makes use of AI, ML, and computer systems to co-discover and develop metals and magnetic alloys. The staff transfers digital findings into bodily validation. It seeks to license or promote its mental property (IP) to companions. Ahead trying, Supplies Nexus will manufacture merchandise or function equally to a fabless producer.

UK-based Cusp.AI has raised $30M for its search engine which leverages generative AI, deep studying, and molecular simulation for supplies design. Its staff is led by Dr. Chad Edwards, former chief at Quantinuum, Google, and BASF. Cusp.AI just lately partnered with Meta to additional its open science contributions (knowledge), particularly to advance supplies for cleantech purposes, e.g., the invention of novel direct air seize sorbent supplies.

Sooner Time-to-Market

This month, France-based, Altrove, raised $4M for its AI-based predictive instruments for bodily validation in automated labs. It’s presently targeted on discovering substitutes for uncommon earth supplies to be used in transition applied sciences, electrical autos, and different superior electronics. Altrove‘s know-how browses the most recent current and predicted supplies databases, runs predictions on materials properties and presents the most effective candidates for a use case in 2-4 weeks. Its automated lab then assessments and validates scalable processes to fabricate supplies in simply 2-6 months. Supplies will be bought straight from Altrove’s manufacturing companions, or its IP will be built-in into current processes.

Quantum Leap in Supplies

Germany-based Quantistry raised $3.2M earlier this yr from traders like Chemovator, the enterprise incubator of BASF, for its SaaS chemical simulation platform. The platform combines the most recent experience in small-scale quantum computing and AI. Only a of couple weeks in the past, Quantistry partnered with IQM Quantum Computer systems to discover hybrid quantum options for the chemical and materials trade.

Whereas a majority of AI options will make the most of desktop computer systems, some options additionally leverage superior tremendous computer systems. As we inch nearer to quantum computing options, we’re positive to see the combination of small-scale quantum computer systems in supplies discovery within the subsequent few years or not less than by the 2030s. Quantum computer systems have ultra-fast computing speeds with excessive precision to course of extremely complicated datasets that might take conventional computer systems lifetimes to course of. The likes of IBM, Microsoft, and Google are competing to ship quantum computing companies (for extra on quantum computer systems, I extremely suggest Dr. Michio Kaku’s Quantum Supremacy).

Germany-based HQS Quantum Simulations is presently offering quantum computing-based SaaS options to foretell materials properties. HQS gives a full software program workflow in addition to the event of a quantum-level module that integrates with an current workflow. It’s raised over $17.3M from notable traders like b2venture and HTGF.

Don’t Be Alarmed, AI Isn’t Taking Jobs—Relatively, It’s Enabling Them

As we race in opposition to time, we have to shortly and effectively uncover new supplies. The problem lies in harnessing the proper knowledge from an overabundance of sources. Digital options are enabling the speedy discovery of supplies simply as among the most fun technological improvements start to come back on-line, e.g., quantum computer systems. Nonetheless, human experience stays vital. The way forward for supplies discovery lies in a synergistic collaboration between these revolutionary applied sciences and the experience of scientists and engineers. In any case, a pc is just as clever because the engineers who construct it.

  • To effectively and quickly uncover the subsequent era of supplies, we should deploy digital options like AI and ML to investigate massive knowledge for speedy knowledge mining, high-throughput computation and testing, and for reverse engineering of supplies
  • AI-powered supplies design can remodel many years of sluggish, incremental progress into discovery in simply weeks to months; nonetheless, human experience stays essential for steerage in steps like knowledge cleansing and validation
  • By the 2030s, quantum computing will unlock an important challenges in our lifetime like the invention of the organic catalyst to supply ammonia (i.e., photosynthesis), high-performance batteries, and many others.

New Webinar: Utilizing APIs to Add Photographs to Your Apps


Standing out within the app market immediately requires extra than simply useful options — it calls for creativity, personalization, and innovation. Think about an app that may generate beautiful, distinctive pictures on the fly primarily based on consumer enter, offering a really custom-made expertise. This isn’t only a futuristic concept; it’s doable proper now with the OpenAI API for picture era.

We’re excited to ask you to an upcoming webinar, led by Emad Ghorbaninia, that may show how one can harness this highly effective device to revolutionize your app.For those who’re a developer, designer, or tech fanatic trying to elevate your app’s consumer expertise, this is a chance you gained’t wish to miss.

Emad brings a wealth of AI expertise, together with his work with Imagainate, an artificial media firm specializing in AI-generated pictures, video, and sonic options.

Particulars

Why Ought to You Attend?

  • Keep Forward of the Curve: AI is quickly remodeling how apps are constructed and skilled. By integrating AI-generated pictures, you possibly can supply options that really feel recent, cutting-edge, and tailor-made to particular person customers. This webinar will present you precisely how you can get began.
  • Fingers-On Studying: This isn’t simply one other theoretical discuss. You’ll get sensible, step-by-step steerage on organising and utilizing the OpenAI API. From creating an account to creating your first API name, we’ll stroll you thru your complete course of, making certain you allow with actionable data.
  • Increase Your Skillset: Whether or not you’re an skilled developer or a newbie, studying to work with AI-powered instruments just like the OpenAI API is a invaluable ability that may open new doorways in your profession. You’ll additionally discover superior methods like immediate engineering, which may considerably improve the standard and relevance of the photographs generated.
  • Actual-World Software: See how AI-generated pictures could be seamlessly built-in into your app. We’ll cowl varied use instances—from customized avatars to dynamic content material creation—and show how you can carry these concepts to life in a dwell coding session.
  • Interactive Q&A: Get your particular questions answered by an professional throughout our Q&A session. That is your probability to dive deeper into challenges, discover distinctive use instances, and get customized recommendation in your initiatives.

What You’ll Be taught

The upcoming webinar is designed to supply a complete introduction to utilizing the OpenAI API for picture era. Whether or not you’re new to AI or trying to improve your present app, this session will equip you with the important data and abilities to combine cutting-edge picture era expertise into your initiatives.

Alongside the best way, you’ll:

  • Perceive the capabilities of the OpenAI API and the way it may be used for picture era in varied functions.
  • Be taught the steps to arrange and entry the API, together with creating an account and integrating it into your app.
  • Discover greatest practices for dealing with consumer enter, managing API responses, and displaying AI-generated pictures inside your app.
  • Delve into superior customization methods, similar to immediate engineering, to align generated pictures along with your app’s aesthetic and consumer wants.

By the tip of this webinar, you’ll have an outline of the instruments and insights wanted to leverage AI-generated pictures, making your app extra partaking and modern. Whether or not you’re constructing a brand new app or enhancing an present one, this session will assist you carry your artistic concepts to life.

Able to See How AI APIs Can Rework Your App?

As a particular bonus, we’re providing an unique low cost on our upcoming bootcamp, Integrating Synthetic Intelligence APIs. This intensive program is designed to take your AI abilities to the subsequent degree, offering you with hands-on expertise in working with varied AI-powered APIs. You’ll not solely learn to combine these highly effective instruments into your functions but additionally achieve deeper insights into optimizing and customizing them for real-world use instances.

Whether or not you’re trying to improve an present app or brainstorming your subsequent large venture, this webinar will present the inspiration and technical know-how to make it occur. Don’t miss out on this chance to carry the facility of AI into your app growth toolkit!

Privateness dangers in relationship apps

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Privateness

What in case your favourite relationship, social media or gaming app revealed your precise coordinates to somebody you’d somewhat preserve at a distance?

The great location leak: Privacy risks in dating apps

In in the present day’s digital age, geolocation options in lots of apps supply plain comfort. Simply earlier than scripting this weblog, I wanted to find some supplies for a DIY venture, and utilizing the ‘click on and accumulate’ characteristic I instantly established the closest retailer that has inventory.

Nonetheless, within the case of social media, relationship apps, gaming, and lots of different on-line providers we could also be prepared to share our normal location however seemingly wish to keep away from sharing our precise location.

A analysis crew from Belgium demonstrated at Black Hat USA final week how location information was being inadvertently leaked by some relationship apps, and on this state of affairs sharing location may clearly be problematic.

Earlier than you cease studying this weblog and rush to delete a profile or take away apps observe that the researchers responsibly disclosed the difficulty to the quite a few relationship apps involved and the difficulty has been resolved. Saying that, it’s a chilling reminder of how your seemingly innocent habits may put your privateness in danger.

The darkish facet of location sharing

Once we enable an app to make use of our location, corresponding to in a relationship app, its cheap to imagine that the placement is generalized, for instance – ‘situated in Tampa 23 miles away’. With a inhabitants of round 400,000, pinpointing somebody’s precise location ought to really feel like discovering a needle in a haystack – or so we expect.

Nonetheless, the presenters demonstrated the way to take the ’X miles away’ information to triangulate a precise location. Choose a goal profile, after which draw a circle along with your location within the heart, out to the space of 23 miles – this supplies a place to begin. Now spoof you location to be in one other location, repeat the method and also you now have two circle that overlap in some unspecified time in the future, spoof to a 3rd location and repeat then the three circles meet at a selected level, and now we’ve got the information of actual location with out the profile proprietor being conscious that we all know their precise location. Scary stuff!

The identical method can be utilized when location boundaries are set; for instance, present me ‘all profiles 5 miles away’. Repeat the method above and the placement of a profile will be recognized. Solely apps or providers that use the precise location have this challenge, if location is rounded to being inside, for instance, a mile then the precise location can’t be recognized utilizing this methodology.

The researchers examined 15 relationship apps for privateness points, such because the one described above, whereas additionally their API interfaces, privateness insurance policies and different information. Their analysis, which is detailed in this white paper, regarded particularly at relationship apps, however location is utilized by many providers and apps in the identical method. For instance, in gaming apps, you could want to discover different gamers of the identical sport which can be close to you.

Highlighting the difficulty utilizing relationship apps as the instance makes for eye-catching headlines as all of us perceive the difficulty of stalkers and predators that perhaps utilizing these platforms. Nonetheless, it’s necessary that each one apps and providers revisit their use of location to make sure that they’re obscuring sufficient of the placement information to make somebody’s exact location not possible to calculate.

Preserving your location non-public

So, what are you able to do to guard your self? The excellent news is you could take steps to mitigate the difficulty and restrict how exactly your location is shared.

When an app requests your permission to make use of location on set up, you possibly can later change the permission to disable exact location sharing. On iOS this makes use of a location to inside three kilometers of your exact location, which is sufficient of a variant to cease somebody triangulating your place as described above.

On Apple units, go to ‘Settings’, ‘Privateness & Safety’ after which to ‘Location Companies’ – every app and its corresponding permission will be displayed and edited as wanted.

In case you use an Android machine, faucet and maintain the app icon, underneath ‘App information’ there’s ‘Permissions’, together with ‘Location’, the place you possibly can choose the suitable possibility.

The race to save lots of our on-line lives from a digital darkish age


Scott now works as “free-range archivist and software program curator” with the Web Archive, a web-based library began in 1996 by the web pioneer Brewster Kahle to save lots of and retailer data that might in any other case be misplaced. 

As a society, we’re creating a lot new stuff that we should all the time delete extra issues than we did the 12 months earlier than.

Over the previous 20 years, the Web Archive has amassed a huge library of fabric scraped from across the net, together with that GeoCities content material. It doesn’t simply save purely digital artifacts, both; it additionally has an unlimited assortment of digitized books that it has scanned and rescued. Because it started, the Web Archive has collected greater than 145 petabytes of information, together with greater than 95 million public media recordsdata akin to films, pictures, and texts. It has managed to save lots of virtually half one million MTV information pages.

Its Wayback Machine, which lets customers rewind to see how sure web sites checked out any time limit, has greater than 800 billion net pages saved and captures an extra 650 million every day. It additionally data and shops TV channels from around the globe and even saves TikToks and YouTube movies. They’re all saved throughout a number of knowledge facilities that the Web Archive owns itself.

It’s a Sisyphean job. As a society, we’re creating a lot new stuff that we should all the time delete extra issues than we did the 12 months earlier than, says Jack Cushman, director at Harvard’s Library Innovation Lab, the place he helps libraries and technologists be taught from each other. We “have to determine what will get saved and what doesn’t,” he says. “And the way can we determine?”  

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MIKE MCQUADE

Archivists need to make such selections continuously. Which TikToks ought to we save for posterity, for instance?

We shouldn’t strive too laborious to think about what future historians would discover attention-grabbing about us, says Niels Brügger, an web researcher at Aarhus College in Denmark. “We can not think about what historians in 30 years’ time wish to examine about at the moment, as a result of we don’t have a clue,” he says. “So we shouldn’t attempt to anticipate and kind of constrain the doable questions that future historians would ask.”

As an alternative, Brügger says, we should always simply save as a lot stuff as doable and allow them to determine it out later. “As a historian, I might undoubtedly go for: Get all of it, after which historians will discover out what the hell they’re going to do with it,” he says.

On the Web Archive, it’s the stuff most vulnerable to being misplaced that will get prioritized, says Jefferson Bailey, who works there serving to develop archiving software program for libraries and establishments. “Materials that’s ephemeral or in danger or has not but been digitized and subsequently is extra simply destroyed, as a result of it’s in analog or print format—these do get precedence,” he says.