Researchers in WMG and the Department of Physics at the University of Warwick have found that asymmetric stresses within electrodes used in certain wearable electronic devices provides an important clue as to how to improve the durability and lifespan of these batteries.

In a work appearing on the cover of Physical Review Letters, volume 125, issue 8, the group of Animesh Datta, with collaborators at the University of Nanjing, China and the University of Ottawa, Canada, have shown that even noisy and saturating detectors can approach shot-noise-limited detection if used judiciously. Shot-noise-limited optical detection is the first, and often the most challenging, step to quantum-enhanced optical sensing. This work uses a technique called weak-value amplification and enables, over a range of input light intensity well beyond the dynamic range of the photodetector, shot-noise-limited detection. Weak-value amplification relies on the principle that only a subset of the photons contains almost all of the information about the sensed object.

Congratulations to Neil Wilson for winning the RMS Mid-Career Scientific Achievement Award for 2020.

The aim of the RMS Mid-Career Scientific Achievement Award is to celebrate and mark outstanding scientific achievements in any area of microscopy or flow cytometry for established, mid-career researchers.