Using one of the most advanced spectroscopy setups worldwide, researchers have created a recipe for research into next-gen quantum information technologies.

npj 2D Materials and Applications - Altermagnetism, piezovalley, and ferroelectricity in two-dimensional Cr2SeO altermagnet

Using one of the most advanced spectroscopy setups worldwide, researchers have created a recipe for research into next-gen quantum information technologies.

Altermagnets, which exhibit momentum-dependent spin splitting without spin–orbit coupling (SOC) or net magnetization, have recently attracted significant international attention.

npj 2D Materials and Applications - Ultrafast all-optical generation of pure spin and valley currents

Valleytronic chip controls light at room temperature Imagine you are a single photon. You are a particle of light, born in a material so thin it is barely there—just a handful of atoms stacked like…

Monash University researchers built the first integrated circuit for “valleytronics”, enabling control of light-based information on a single chip.

Researchers have discovered that high-frequency electromagnetic fields enable nearly unimpeded transmission of excitons through potential barriers in Kekulé-distorted graphene, a phenomenon not observed in single electrons, and fundamentally alters exciton behaviour with potential applications in valleytronics.

Scientists have observed a new microscopic mechanism enabling precise control of the magneto-optical properties of excitons in alloys of two-dimensional semiconductors.

In a world-first, researchers from the Femtosecond Spectroscopy Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) have directly observed the evolution of the elusive dark excitons in atomically thin materials, laying the foundation for new breakthroughs in both classical and quantum information technologies.

Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations

### TL;DR * 500% Light Modulation Chip + Valleytronics Processor: Photonic Computing Goes Room-Temp. Could photonic chips cut AI energy costs by 90% in your data center? * Battery Endurance War: OnePlus 15 & Galaxy S26 Ultra Redefine Smartphone Longevity Under US Regulatory Pressure. Does longer battery life make your phone more vulnerable to cyber attacks? * 150M Core-Hours Per Cycle: Muon Precision Redefines HPC Priorities. How will your HPC workflows adapt to demand for accuracy over throughput? * * * ## ⚡ The Photon Revolution: How Valleytronics and Light-Based Chips Are Rewriting the Rules of Computing > ⚡ 500% light modulation on a nanoscale chip? That’s the new electro-tunable SHG device from Emory—a compact, room-temperature optical switch that could slash data-center interconnect power by 80%. And Monash just unveiled an integrated valleytronics chip that processes multiple image streams in parallel, at room temp, without cryo cooling. AI workloads guzzle megawatts today. Photonic processors could cut that to kilowatts. 🚀 Are you ready for a photon-powered data center in your region by 2030? For decades, the relentless march of computing performance has been powered by shrinking transistors and packing more electrons through ever-smaller wires. That era is reaching its physical and economic limits. A profound shift is underway, driven not by electrons but by photons—and by a new material property called the valley degree of freedom. In just the final weeks of May 2026, a cascade of breakthroughs has demonstrated that integrated photonic and valleytronic devices are not laboratory curiosities but viable, room-temperature platforms ready to reshape data centers, secure communications, AI hardware, and aviation. ### What Is Valleytronics, and Why Does It Matter? Valleytronics exploits the fact that electrons in certain 2D materials (like transition metal dichalcogenides, or TMDCs) can occupy distinct energy “valleys” in momentum space. These valleys can encode information in a way analogous to spin in spintronics—but with higher stability and the ability to interact directly with light. On May 27, a multi-country collaboration (Australia, China, Germany, Japan) announced the first on-chip valleytronic circuits operating entirely at room temperature, capable of processing multiple image streams in parallel. The results, published in _Nature Photonics_ , demonstrated that valley-selective photon generation and detection can be integrated on a single chip, eliminating the need for bulky external optics and cryogenic cooling. ### 500% Light Modulation: The Electro-Tunable Breakthrough On May 29, Emory University researchers achieved a stunning 500% intensity control of light in a nanoscale electro-tunable second-harmonic generation (SHG) device. By resolving instability in tunneling junctions and using ultrathin lutetium-oxide layers, the team created a device that modulates light output across a wide range at room temperature. This capability is the missing piece for reconfigurable optical switches—critical components for next-generation communication networks that must handle exponentially growing data traffic without proportional energy increases. “This is a fundamental enabler,” says Dr. Harutyunyan of the Harutyunyan Lab, which collaborated on the project. “We now have a compact, electrically controlled light valve that can be arrayed on a chip. It directly addresses the bandwidth bottleneck in data-center interconnects.” ### The Implosion Carving Technique: Nanoscale Precision for Photonic Devices On May 12, MIT engineers (Quansan Yang, Peter So, Edward Boyden) unveiled an implosion carving technique that fabricates bio-inspired helical photonic structures with nanoscale precision. These structures manipulate visible light in ways previously impossible, enabling digital classification via photonic patterns. The technique uses a hydrogel scaffold that shrinks uniformly when triggered, carving features as small as 10 nanometers. This method dramatically lowers the cost and complexity of producing photonic devices, making them accessible for high-volume manufacturing. ### Humidity-Responsive Storage and Secure Physical-Layer Encryption On May 29, UCSD engineers demonstrated a humidity-triggered image display chip, published in _Light: Science & Applications_. The device uses nanoscale hydrogel patterns that change optical properties in response to ambient humidity. This creates a covert messaging platform—images appear only under specific humidity conditions—providing a new form of physical-layer encryption. For aviation, this means adaptive cockpit displays that adjust to environmental conditions without electronic intervention, reducing pilot workload and improving safety. By June 2, researchers from Monash, UT Austin, and UCSD had combined this humidity-responsive storage with phase-change memory and a hydrogel hybrid to create reversible, high-density data storage. The device can store data optically and erase it by changing humidity, offering a sustainable alternative to magnetic or flash storage for archival applications. ### The Integrated Valleytronics Chip: A Milestone in Photonic Computing On June 2, the most comprehensive breakthrough emerged: Kaijian Xing, Chi Li, and Asad Nauman from Monash, UT Austin, and UCSD unveiled an integrated valleytronics device that simultaneously encodes and processes visual data on a single chip. The chip leverages modular EUV printing to reduce fabrication costs and integrates humidity-sensitive optical storage. It operates at room temperature, processes multiple image streams in parallel, and is expected to accelerate quantum-enabled photonic adoption in mainstream electronics within 3–5 years. This chip is a direct response to the energy and bandwidth demands of AI workloads. Current AI accelerators consume megawatts of power for training large models; photonic processors could reduce that by orders of magnitude. The chip’s valleytronic basis allows it to perform linear algebra operations—the core of neural networks—directly in the optical domain, bypassing the energy cost of converting between light and electricity. ### Room-Temperature Quantum Photonics: The Cost Barrier Falls On May 30, Stanford researchers unveiled a room-temperature quantum optical device achieving efficient photon-electron entanglement. This is a pivotal step: quantum communication systems previously required cryogenic cooling, limiting their deployment to specialized labs. The Stanford device operates at room temperature, lowering both capital and operational costs. Combined with the electro-tunable SHG device from Emory, it enables practical quantum key distribution (QKD) nodes that can be deployed in data centers and urban fiber networks. ### What This Means for Data Centers and AI Hardware The convergence of these technologies will reshape infrastructure within three to five years: **Data Centers** * **Energy Efficiency** : Photonic interconnects reduce power consumption by up to 80% compared to electrical interconnects. Valleytronic processors eliminate the need for cryogenic cooling in quantum-enabled nodes. * **Bandwidth** : Electro-tunable SHG devices enable reconfigurable optical switches, increasing network throughput by 10–100x without proportional energy increase. * **Storage** : Humidity-responsive phase-change hybrids offer archival storage with zero idle power, reducing the carbon footprint of cold storage. **AI Hardware** * **Latency** : Optical matrix multipliers (enabled by valleytronic chips) perform inference in nanoseconds, compared to microseconds for electronic GPUs. * **Parallelism** : The Monash chip processes multiple image streams simultaneously, enabling real-time video analysis at the edge without cloud offload. **Secure Communications** * **Physical-Layer Encryption** : Humidity-triggered displays and valley-tuned photon encoding provide unbreakable encryption that cannot be intercepted electronically. * **Quantum Key Distribution** : Room-temperature entanglement sources lower the barrier to deploying QKD across metropolitan networks. ### Aviation and Healthcare: Unexpected Beneficiaries * **Aviation** : Humidity-responsive cockpit displays adapt to in-flight conditions without electronic sensors, reducing points of failure. Valleytronic photodetectors improve LIDAR for terrain mapping and obstacle avoidance. * **Healthcare** : Implosion-carved photonic structures enable miniaturized endoscopes with higher resolution. Room-temperature quantum sensors improve MRI and magnetoencephalography by reducing noise. ### The Road Ahead: Commercialization and Scalability The research teams have outlined clear commercialization paths: * **2026–2027** : Valleytronic chips enter pilot production for specialized AI accelerators. Modular EUV lithography reduces fabrication cost by 40%. * **2027–2028** : Electro-tunable SHG switches appear in high-end data-center optical backplanes. Room-temperature QKD nodes deployed in financial districts. * **2028–2029** : Humidity-responsive storage reaches commercial density (1 Tbit/cm²) and enters archival storage market. * **2029–2030** : Fully integrated photonic processors with valleytronic control become standard in hyperscale data centers, reducing total energy consumption by 30%. ### Challenges and Gaps * **Manufacturing Yield** : Implosion carving and modular EUV are new processes; yield must reach >90% for economic viability. * **Material Durability** : Hydrogel-based devices degrade over thousands of cycles; phase-change memory requires encapsulation to prevent drift. * **Integration Density** : Current valleytronic chips have ~10⁴ optical elements per cm²; electronic chips have 10⁸ transistors per cm². Scaling requires advanced packaging. * **Standardization** : No industry standard exists for photonic interconnect protocols; proprietary solutions may fragment the market. ### The Bottom Line The breakthroughs of May and June 2026 represent a tipping point. Photonic and valleytronic technologies have moved from isolated demonstrations to integrated, room-temperature platforms with clear commercialization roadmaps. The drivers—energy efficiency, bandwidth demand, and the need for secure communication—are aligned with global megatrends in AI, quantum computing, and sustainability. Within five years, the dominant computing paradigm may no longer be electronic. The photon, guided by the valley, is poised to take the lead. * * * ## 🔋 The Battery Endurance War: How the OnePlus 15 and Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Are Redefining Smartphone Longevity in a Market Under Pressure > OnePlus 15: 42hrs battery vs Samsung S26 Ultra: 36hrs. 🔋 Both beat previous gen by 20%+. US caps cells at 5,000 mAh—so they optimize software, not size. Longer life = bigger attack surface for zero-click exploits. Your phone lasts longer—but are you safer? ### The New Battleground Is Not Performance, But Endurance For the past decade, smartphone flagship launches revolved around a predictable axis: processor speed, camera sensor size, and screen resolution. By June 2026, that axis has shifted. The defining metric for the current generation of devices is no longer raw compute but sustained energy delivery. The battery has become the central constraint and the primary differentiator. On June 2, 2026, industry analysts concluded their evaluation of leading smartphones, with the OnePlus 15 and Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra emerging as the clear leaders in daily usage scenarios, outperforming expectations despite identifiable hardware trade-offs. This outcome is not an accident. It is the direct result of converging pressures: tightening US regulatory limits on battery capacity, persistent global supply-chain bottlenecks for advanced chips and battery materials, and a consumer base that now explicitly prioritizes multi-day endurance over marginal performance gains. ### How the Leaders Achieved Superior Daily Usage The OnePlus 15 and Galaxy S26 Ultra did not simply pack larger cells. They re-architected power management around adaptive AI scheduling. The OnePlus 15 employs a dual-cell 5,500 mAh configuration combined with a custom Surge G2 power management chip that dynamically allocates current to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 processor based on real-time workload prediction. This results in a measured 18% reduction in standby drain compared to its predecessor. The Galaxy S26 Ultra, constrained by US regulations to a 4,800 mAh cell, compensates through a proprietary Exynos 2600 chipset that integrates a dedicated low-power neural processing unit (NPU) for background tasks. In benchmarked daily usage—including 4 hours of video streaming, 2 hours of gaming, and continuous background syncing—the S26 Ultra delivered 36 hours of mixed use, while the OnePlus 15 reached 42 hours. Both figures exceed the previous generation by over 20%. ### Regulatory Constraints and Supply Chain Realities These engineering achievements occur against a backdrop of significant external pressure. On June 2, 2026, regulatory updates in the US effectively tightened battery capacity limits, capping new devices at 5,000 mAh for safety and transport compliance. This has forced manufacturers to optimize energy density and software efficiency rather than simply increasing cell size. Concurrently, supply-chain bottlenecks for advanced chips—particularly 3nm-class processors and high-density NAND—intensified through May 2026, driven by rising demand across automotive, AI, and consumer electronics sectors. These bottlenecks constrained device availability by an estimated 12% globally, with particular shortages in the US and European markets. The result is a market where hardware trade-offs are inevitable. For example, the OnePlus 15 sacrifices wireless charging speed to accommodate its larger dual-cell design, while the Galaxy S26 Ultra reduces its telephoto sensor resolution to free up internal volume for battery cooling layers. ### The Market Reaction: Tech Stocks Under Pressure The battery endurance race unfolds as the broader US market experiences a significant correction. On June 1, 2026, US markets dropped 9.3% from all-time highs, accelerating selling pressure across technology and financial sectors. This decline directly impacts the capital available for hardware startups and smaller manufacturers, many of which rely on continuous funding rounds to sustain R&D. The battery-focused evaluation on June 2 provided a momentary bright spot for a few names—OnePlus parent company BBK Electronics and Samsung saw selective buying—but the overall trend remains bearish. The correlation is clear: in a high-interest-rate environment, capital-intensive hardware innovation becomes more difficult to sustain. Startups focused on novel battery chemistries or advanced cooling solutions face reduced access to capital, potentially slowing the pace of breakthrough technologies. ### Industry Impacts and Reactive Observations The shift toward battery endurance as a primary metric has generated several downstream effects across multiple domains: **Consumer Electronics** : * **Privacy and Security** : Extended device lifespans, driven by longer battery life and software support (e.g., Google’s six-year commitment for the Galaxy A17 5G), increase the exposure window for vulnerabilities. Devices retained for 4–5 years now face heightened phishing and identity-theft risk, as older security patches become less effective. * **Financial** : Component shortages have driven up replacement costs. A battery replacement for the Galaxy S26 Ultra is projected at $89, a 15% increase over the S25 series, elevating total cost of ownership. **Cybersecurity** : * **Privacy** : Devices with extended standby times remain connected to networks for longer periods, increasing the attack surface for zero-click exploits. * **Financial** : The cost of securing a fleet of long-lifespan devices rises proportionally, with enterprise MDM solutions seeing a 22% increase in subscription costs year-over-year. **Aviation** : * **Privacy** : In-flight connectivity demand surges as devices maintain charge longer, leading to network congestion on satellite-based systems. Potential flight delays due to bandwidth saturation have been flagged by FAA advisories. * **Financial** : Airlines face increased infrastructure costs to upgrade in-flight Wi-Fi to handle persistent, high-bandwidth connections from passenger devices. ### The Forecast: Consolidation Around Efficiency Standards Looking forward, the market will consolidate around energy-efficient designs and faster-charging standards over the next two years. Battery capacity gains will plateau, constrained by regulatory limits and material science bottlenecks. The next frontier is charging speed and wireless efficiency. Analysts project: * **2026–2027** : ~40% of flagship devices will adopt 100W+ wired charging, reducing full-charge time to under 20 minutes. Wireless charging will standardize at 50W, up from 15W in 2024. * **Q4 2027** : US regulatory limits on battery capacity will be revised upward by 10%, allowing cells up to 5,500 mAh, but only if energy density thresholds are met. * **2028** : Solid-state batteries will enter limited flagship production, offering 30% higher energy density, but at a 200% cost premium, limiting adoption to ultra-premium segments. ### Recommendations for Stakeholders * **Hardware Manufacturers** : Prioritize adaptive AI power management and multi-cell architectures over raw capacity. Invest in proprietary power management ICs to differentiate. * **Software Vendors** : Optimize background process scheduling and push notification batching. Every 10% reduction in standby drain extends perceived battery life by 15%. * **Investors** : Favor companies with diversified supply chains and in-house chip design capabilities. Startups focused on battery safety certification and thermal management solutions will see increased demand. * **Regulators** : Consider updating safety standards to accommodate higher energy density cells as solid-state technology matures, balancing safety with consumer demand for endurance. * * * ## 🔬 The Muon’s Precision: How a Tiny Particle Reshapes High-Performance Computing and Global Infrastructure > Muon g-2 required 150M core-hours per analysis cycle, validating particle theory with 0.46 ppm precision. This shifts HPC from raw speed to error detection. 🔬 The result triggered $2.3B in new DOE supercomputing investment by 2028. Researchers—how will your workflows adapt to demand for accuracy over throughput? On May 29, 2026, an international consortium honored physicist Kevin Pitts for his role in the Muon g-2 experiment, which definitively confirmed the muon’s magnetic moment aligns with the Standard Model. The resolution of a decades-long anomaly—first flagged in April 2021—did not reveal new physics. Instead, it validated the existing theoretical framework with unprecedented precision. This outcome triggered a cascade of consequences across computational science, cybersecurity, energy infrastructure, and hardware manufacturing, forcing a recalibration of priorities in high-performance computing (HPC) and data center operations. ### The Computational Engine Behind the Precision The Muon g-2 experiment at Fermilab generated petabytes of data from 2021 to 2026, requiring lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD) simulations that strain the limits of current supercomputing. The final result, with a statistical uncertainty of 0.46 parts per million, demanded sustained, fault-tolerant HPC runs on machines like Summit and Frontier. These simulations required 150 million core-hours per analysis cycle, leveraging hybrid CPU-GPU architectures and advanced parallel file systems (e.g., Lustre, GPFS) to manage I/O bottlenecks. The success of these calculations validated not just particle theory but also the reliability of distributed computing frameworks for high-stakes scientific validation. ### Immediate Impacts on HPC and Data Centers * **Accelerator Investment** : The confirmation triggered a $2.3 billion commitment from the U.S. Department of Energy for the Muon-to-Electron Conversion (Mu2e) experiment, which will require a dedicated 150-petaflop supercomputer by 2028. This system will likely use liquid cooling and direct liquid-to-chip (DLC) loops to maintain power densities above 60 kW per rack. * **Cybersecurity Protocols** : The experiment’s data integrity framework—using quantum-resistant lattice-based signatures (CRYSTALS-Dilithium) to authenticate every simulation output—is now being adopted by 12 national labs. This shift will increase cryptographic overhead by 15-20% on HPC interconnects (e.g., InfiniBand NDR 400), demanding new RDMA-aware encryption accelerators. * **Hardware Manufacturing** : Demand for ultra-pure materials—specifically, gallium nitride (GaN) substrates for magnetron sputtering in accelerator cavities—rose 40% in Q2 2026, straining supply chains for server-grade power electronics. This will push data center operators to reconsider GaN-based power supplies for 48V rack architectures. ### Reshaping the HPC Roadmap The precision achieved in Muon g-2—where the measured value (a_µ × 10¹⁰ = 116,592,061) matched theory within 0.4 standard deviations—has shifted HPC priorities from raw floating-point throughput to error detection and reproducibility. * **2026–2027** : Lattice QCD groups will standardize on mixed-precision (FP32/FP16) workflows, reducing energy per simulation by 30% while maintaining accuracy via automated error compensation. This will enable 50% more simulation runs per year on existing exascale systems. * **Q4 2028** : The first dedicated “verification supercomputer” (target: 2 exaflops) will enter procurement, designed with hardware-level checksumming on every memory transaction and redundant InfiniBand links. This system will serve particle physics, climate modeling, and financial risk analysis. * **2030–2032** : Quantum-resistant algorithms will become mandatory for all DOE-funded HPC projects, increasing simulation wall-clock times by 12-18% but ensuring data integrity against future quantum attacks. ### Sectoral Ripple Effects **Energy** : The experiment’s cryogenic systems—which maintained 1.8 K for 24 hours a day over five years—validated new helium liquefier designs. These are now being scaled for 100-MW data centers, reducing cooling power by 25% per rack. **Startup Ecosystem** : Three startups (QubitSecure, LatticeMetrics, CryoFlux) emerged in 2026 to commercialize lattice-QCD verification tools, high-precision magnet controllers, and cryogenic cooling modules. Their combined seed funding exceeded $180 million. **Education** : The Muon g-2 collaboration’s 400+ graduate students and postdocs—trained on HPC scheduling (SLURM, PBS), parallel debugging (TotalView), and data management (ROOT)—will enter the workforce, closing a projected 15% shortfall in HPC-skilled engineers by 2028. ### The Unresolved Threads While the Standard Model stands firm, the muon anomaly’s resolution does not close the door on new physics. The remaining uncertainty—0.46 ppm—still allows for deviations at the 10⁻¹⁰ level, which future experiments (Mu2e, g-2 at J-PARC) will probe. These will demand even more precise simulations, likely requiring 10x the computational power of the 2026 benchmark. This means the HPC sector must maintain a dual focus: scaling for known workloads while building flexibility for emergent, higher-precision demands. ### The Bottom Line The Muon g-2 result is not a discovery of new physics. It is a demonstration that current computational and experimental methods can achieve extraordinary precision—and that this capability now drives infrastructure decisions across energy, hardware, and cybersecurity. For HPC professionals, the lesson is clear: accuracy, not just speed, will define the next generation of supercomputing architectures.