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Nickel is supposed to herald a new age of superconductivity - but this is proving more difficult than expected. Scientists at TU Wien (Vienna) can now explain why. Last summer, a new age for high-temperature superconductivity was proclaimed - the nickel age. It was discovered that there are promising superconductors in a special class of materials, the so-called nickelates, which can conduct electric current without any resistance even at high temperatures.

Although organic plastics are not harmful to the environment themselves, toxic substances are often used during their synthesis. TU Wien shows - there is another way. Many materials that we use every day are not sustainable. Some are harmful to plants or animals, others contain rare elements that will not always be as readily available as they are today.

An ultra-fast image sensor with a built-in neural network has been developed at TU Wien (Vienna). It can be trained to recognize certain objects. It has now been presented in "Nature". Automatic image recognition is widely used today: There are computer programs that can reliably diagnose skin cancer, navigate self-driving cars, or control robots.

A world premiere in Austria: The new bridge construction technology which was developed at TU Wien has now been successfully applied by ASFINAG during the construction of the Fürstenfeld Motorway There are many different methods for erecting bridges - but the new technique developed by TU Wien, the balanced lowering method, is quite spectacular: the bridge is not built horizontally, as would normally be case, but erected in a vertical position and then rotated into the horizontal position.

Actually they had been looking for something completely different, but they found a previously unknown quasi-particle: A bound state of two electrons, two holes and light. In physics, there are very different types of particles: Elementary particles are the fundamental building blocks of matter. Other particles, such as atoms, are bound states consisting of several smaller constituents.

Developing a quantum description for a many-body system is extremely hard. TU Wien (Vienna) and Heidelberg University found a way to obtain quantum theories directly from the experiment. Many of the biggest questions in physics can be answered with the help of quantum field theories: They are needed to describe the dynamics of many interacting particles, and thus they are just as important in solid state physics as in cosmology.

How can you prevent cracks from forming after painting? TU Wien has recently patented two new measuring processes that show which paint is best. It's a familiar problem for anyone who has renovated a house or flat: no building is a perfectly rigid body. Walls and ceilings can move slightly over time, which often leads to cracks in the paint on the walls.

Until now, complex experimental equipment was required to measure the shape of a light pulse. A team from TU Wien (Vienna), MPI Garching and LMU Munich has now made this much easier. Today, modern lasers can generate extremely short light pulses, which can be used for a wide range of applications from investigating materials to medical diagnostics.

A new, extremely efficient source of terahertz radiation has been developed at TU Wien (Vienna): Lasers turn air into plasma, thereby producing terahertz rays for many possible applications. Terahertz radiation is used for security checks at airports, for medical examinations and also for quality checks in industry.

For years, a new synthesis method has been developed at TU Wien (Vienna) to unlock the secrets of "strange metals". Now a breakthrough has been achieved. The results have been published in "Science". Superconductors allow electrical current to flow without any resistance - but only below a certain critical temperature.

Atoms, molecules or even living cells can be manipulated with light beams. At TU Wien a method was developed to revolutionize such "optical tweezers". They are reminiscent of the "tractor beam" in Star Trek: special light beams can be used to manipulate molecules or small biological particles. Even viruses or cells can be captured or moved.

A new type of material generates electrical current very efficiently from temperature differences. This allows sensors and small processors to supply themselves with energy wirelessly. Thermoelectric materials can convert heat into electrical energy. This is due to the so-called Seebeck effect: If there is a temperature difference between the two ends of such a material, electrical voltage can be generated and current can start to flow.

With a new process developed at TU Wien (Vienna), living cells can be integrated into fine structures created in a 3D printer - extremely fast and with very high resolution. Tissue growth and the behavior of cells can be controlled and investigated particularly well by embedding the cells in a delicate 3D framework.

Researchers at TU Wien have developed a new type of sensing element for atomic force microscopy, which enables a high measurement speed and can even image sensitive processes in living cells. High-definition images of minute objects are standard these days including the imaging of bacteria and viruses, and even molecules and individual atoms in extremely fine details.

A very special kind of light is emitted by tungsten diselenide layers. The reason for this has been unclear. Now an explanation has been found at TU Wien (Vienna). It is an exotic phenomenon that nobody was able to explain for years: when energy is supplied to a thin layer of the material tungsten diselenide, it begins to glow in a highly unusual fashion.

Is it possible to borrow energy from an empty space? And if yes, do we have to give it back? Energy values smaller than zero are allowed - at least within certain limits. Energy is a quantity that must always be positive - at least that's what our intuition tells us. If every single particle is removed from a certain volume until there is nothing left that could possibly carry energy, then a limit has been reached.

A new measurement protocol, developed at TU Wien (Vienna), makes it possible to measure the quantum phase of electrons - an important step for attosecond physics. It is like a microscope for time: Today's methods of attosecond physic allows us to measure extremely short time intervals. With the help of short laser pulses, physical processes can be investigated on a time scale of attoseconds - that is billionths of a billionth of a second.

The concept of the laser can be reversed: the perfect light source then becomes the perfect light absorber. Scientists at TU Wien have found a way to build such an anti-laser, based on random scattering. The laser is the perfect light source: As long as it is provided with energy, it generates light of a specific, well-defined colour.

Physicists have discovered a new effect, which makes it possible to create excellent thermal insulators which conduct electricity. Such materials can be used to convert waste heat into electrical energy. Every day we lose valuable energy in the form of waste heat - in technical devices at home, but also in large energy systems.

Currently, there is no precise computation method to describe superconducting materials. TU Wien has now made a major advance towards achieving this goal and, at the same time, has furthered an understanding of why conventional materials only become superconducting at around -200°C Why does it always have to be so cold? We now know of a whole range of materials that ' under certain conditions ' conduct electrical current entirely without resistance.