Photonics Spectra: IBM Research This is the syndication feed for Photonics Spectra: IBM Research. https://www.photonics.com/Splash.aspx?Tag=IBM+Research Thu, 28 Mar 2024 20:30:16 GMT Tue, 31 Oct 2017 12:44:30 GMT 1800 Spectrometer Uses Silicon Photonics to Efficiently Monitor Gas Leaks
A chip-based spectrometer that is smaller than a dime has demonstrated the ability to detect methane in concentrations as low as 100 parts-per-million. The spectrometer leverages silicon photonics technology to realize a compact, cost-effective design that provides IR tunable diode-laser absorption spectroscopy (IR-TDLAS) on a CMOS-compatible platform.

Developed by scientists at IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, the chip-based spectrometer uses an approach similar to absorption spectroscopy; but instead of a free-space setup, the laser travels through a narrow silicon waveguide that follows a 10-centimeter-long serpentine pattern on top of a chip measuring 16 square millimeters.

This artistic rendering depicts the new...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Spectrometer_Uses_Silicon_Photonics_to/p5/a62712 A62712 Tue, 31 Oct 2017 12:44:30 GMT
Concentrating the power of 2000 suns
A new photovoltaic system could harness the power of 2000 suns and convert a whopping 80 percent of incoming light into useful energy – providing sunny, remote locations with electricity, fresh water and cooler air at lower prices than conventional devices allow.

Just 2 percent of the solar energy from the Sahara Desert could meet the world’s electricity needs, according to a study from the European Solar Thermal Electricity Association and Greenpeace International. But current solar technologies are too expensive and slow to produce; they also require rare-earth minerals and lack the efficiency to make such massive installations practical.

Rendering by Airlight Energy of the prototype high-concentration photovoltaic...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Concentrating_the_power_of_2000_suns/p5/a54279 A54279 Mon, 01 Jul 2013 00:00:00 GMT
System Aims to Concentrate Power of 2000 Suns
A photovoltaic system capable of harnessing the power of 2000 suns and converting 80 percent of incoming light into useful energy could provide sunny, remote locations with electricity, fresh water and cooler air at lower prices than conventional devices.

It would only take 2 percent of the solar energy from the Sahara Desert to supply the world’s electricity needs, according to a study from the European Solar Thermal Electricity Association and Greenpeace International. However, current solar technologies are too expensive and slow to produce, require rare-earth minerals, and lack the efficiency to make such massive installations practical.

Now an international collaboration of scientists from IBM Research, ETH Zurich,...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/System_Aims_to_Concentrate_Power_of_2000_Suns/p5/a53648 A53648 Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT
IBM, ETH Zurich Open Nanotech Center IBM https://www.photonics.com/Articles/IBM_ETH_Zurich_Open_Nanotech_Center_IBM/p5/a47902 A47902 Mon, 01 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT IBM, ETH Zurich Open Nanotech Center
IBM and ETH Zurich, a science and engineering university, recently hosted more than 600 guests from industry, academia and government during the opening of the Binnig and Rohrer Nanotechnology Center on the campus of IBM Research in Zurich.

The facility is the centerpiece of a 10-year strategic partnership in nanoscience between IBM and ETH Zurich to advance energy and information technologies. The center is named for Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer, the two IBM scientists and Nobel laureates who invented the scanning tunneling microscope at the Zurich Research Lab in 1981, enabling researchers to see atoms on a surface for the first time.

IBM and ETH Zurich have partnered to open the Binnig and Rohrer Nanotechnology Center,...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/IBM_ETH_Zurich_Open_Nanotech_Center/p5/a47365 A47365 Mon, 06 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT
Lighting the Path to Exascale Computing
New chip technology unveiled today by IBM integrates electrical and optical devices on the same piece of silicon, enabling computer chips to communicate using light pulses instead of electrical signals. The advance could bring exascale computers — machines 1000 times faster than today's best systems — closer to reality.

The new technology, called CMOS integrated silicon nanophotonics, is the result of a decade of development at its research labs, IBM said. Integrating optical devices and functions directly onto a silicon chip enables a more than 10X improvement in integration density than is feasible with current manufacuring techniques.

IBM's new CMOS integrated silicon nanophotonics chip technology integrates...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Lighting_the_Path_to_Exascale_Computing/p5/a45141 A45141 Wed, 01 Dec 2010 00:00:00 GMT
ID’ing Molecules from the Briny Deep
In a pioneering research project, scientists at IBM and the University of Aberdeen have collaborated to “see” the structure of a marine compound from the deepest place on the Earth using an atomic force microscope (AFM). Their results open up new possibilities in biological research, which could lead to the faster development of new medicines.

Their findings were reported in the online Aug. 1 issue of the journal Nature Chemistry.

Last year, scientists from the university’s Marine Biodiscovery Centre began work on a species of bacterium from a mud sample taken from the Mariana Trench — the deepest place on Earth, located 10,916 m (35,814 ft) beneath the Pacific Ocean surface. The samples came from...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/IDing_Molecules_from_the_Briny_Deep_/p5/a43667 A43667 Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT
Road to Exascale Computers
Kash, who said he was presenting his own views and not those of IBM Research, said that VCSEL-based optics have displaced electric cables today in supercomputers, but with power, density and cost requirements increasing exponentially as the systems get powerful, the need increases to move to on-chip optics.

The top supercomputer today is the IBM Roadrunner petascale floating point operations per second (petaflops) machine at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, which became operational in 2008...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Road_to_Exascale_Computers/p5/a40047 A40047 Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Road to Exascale Computers
Kash, who said he was presenting his own views and not those of IBM Research, said that VCSEL-based optics have displaced electric cables today in supercomputers, but with power, density and cost requirements increasing exponentially as the systems get powerful, the need increases to move to on-chip optics.

The top supercomputer today is the IBM Roadrunner petascale floating point operations per second (petaflops) machine at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, which became operational in 2008...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Road_to_Exascale_Computers/p5/a40048 A40048 Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Heat Tracked in Nanotubes
In a landmark study in the field of nanoelectronics, IBM Research scientists have announced the development and demonstration of techniques that measure the distribution of energy and heat in powered carbon nanotube devices.

By employing these techniques, IBM researchers have determined how the energy of electrical currents running through nanotubes is converted into heat and dissipated into collective vibrations of the nanotube's atoms, as well as surface vibrations of the substrate beneath it.


The figure shows an artist's conception of a nanotube being heated (excited) by passing a current of electrons (e-'s) through it. The energetic electrons excite preferentially the mode of vibration of the carbon atoms labeled K. Then the...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Heat_Tracked_in_Nanotubes/p5/a36649 A36649 Mon, 02 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT
3-D MRI Extends to Nanoscale
The creation of a microscopy tool with ultrahigh resolution, combined with an advanced 3-D image reconstruction technique, has enabled scientists to demonstate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on biological objects such as viruses. The achievement stands to affect the study of materials – from proteins to integrated circuits – for which a detailed understanding of atomic structure is essential.
This artistic view depicts the magnetic tip (blue) interacting with the virus particles at the end of the cantilever. (Images: IBM) The microscope created by IBM Research scientists, working in collaboration with the Center for Probing the Nanoscale at Stanford University, has volume resolution 100 million times finer than conventional MRI, giving...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/3-D_MRI_Extends_to_Nanoscale/p5/a35959 A35959 Tue, 13 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT