January 2022

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Team creates 3D objects that change their appearance from different viewpoints

(L) A kettlebell guides a user to the correct position for holding the device during exercise. It was created using tools developed at MIT that allow 3D objects to change their appearance from different viewpoints. (R) Yunui Zhu is in the lab holding a shoe with a motivational message only the wearer can see. Credit: Zeng et al., MIT

Editing tool makes fabrication process available to all Picture a birthday card that flickers between images of a birthday cake and flowers as you turn the card and view it from different angles. Until now, the effect has been limited to flat surfaces. Enter the work of MIT researchers who, for the first time, have developed a system for creating 3D objects that change their appearance when seen from different viewpoints. The same team also developed an editing tool available free online that can allow anyone to design and build such 3D objects, all through 3D printing. Read more

Physicists manipulate magnetism with light

Carina Belvin (left) and Edoardo Baldini work in the MIT lab of Professor Nuh Gedik.  Photo Credit: Tianchuang Luo

Work has potential applications in memory storage and demonstrates a rare form of matter

With the help of a “playground” they created for observing exotic physics, MIT scientists and colleagues have not only found a new way to manipulate magnetism in a material with light but have also realized a rare form of matter. The former could lead to applications including computer memory storage devices that can read or write information in a much faster way, while the latter introduces new physics. Read more

Physicists discover 'secret sauce' behind exotic properties of new quantum material

A visualization of the zero-energy electronic states – also known as a ‘Fermi surface’ – from the kagome material studied by MIT’s Riccardo Comin and colleagues. Credit: Comin Laboratory, MIT

Work will aid design of other unusual quantum materials with many potential applications

MIT physicists and colleagues have discovered the “secret sauce” behind some of the exotic properties of a new quantum material that has transfixed physicists due to those properties, which include superconductivity. Although theorists had predicted the reason for the unusual properties of the material, known as a kagome metal, this is the first time that the phenomenon behind those properties has been observed in the laboratory. “The hope is that our new understanding of the electronic structure of a kagome metal will help us build a rich platform for discovering other quantum materials,” says Riccardo Comin, the Class of 1947 Career Development Assistant Professor of Physics at MIT, whose group led the study. That, in turn, could lead to a new class of superconductors, new approaches to quantum computing, and other quantum technologies. The work is reported in the January 13, 2022 online issue of the journal Nature Physics. Read More

Light could boost performance of fuel cells, lithium batteries, and other devices

MIT Professor Harry L. Tuller (right), Graduate Student Thomas Defferriere, and colleagues have shown how light can boost the performance of lithium batteries, fuel cells, and other devices based on the movement of charged atoms, or ions. Credit: Denis Paiste, MIT Materials Research Laboratory, 2019

Enhances flow of charged atoms traveling through a material

Engineers from MIT and Kyushu University in Japan have demonstrated for the first time how light can be used to significantly improve the performance of fuel cells, lithium batteries, and other devices that are based on the movement of charged atoms, or ions. The work is reported in the January 13, 2022 online issue of the journal Nature Materials. Read more

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