Geiger-mode avalanche photodiodes (APDs) are capable of detecting single photons by harnessing a process called avalanche multiplication. 4H-SiC APDs have demonstrated high sensitivity in the deep ultraviolet range. However, at higher wavelengths of light, APDs require advanced architectures to improve their unity-gain quantum efficiency to maintain single-photon sensitivity. Optimizing avalanche photodiodes for high wavelength operation brings several design challenges. Researchers have now created a numerical model with a calibrated 4H-SiC material library for designing avalanche photodiodes for near-ultraviolet photodetection.

Beyond the disruption to Ukraine’s food exports, the war is jeopardising the country’s long-term ability to remain the ‘breadbasket of Europe’, because its soils are gradually losing vital crop nutrients. That is the warning issued by researchers from the UK, Ukraine and the Netherlands who say more nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium* are now being removed from soils via harvested crops than added back in. This is due to reduced access to fertilisers during the war and inefficient farming practices. Military activity has also exacerbated existing degradation and erosion of soils across Ukraine.

A unified strategy using aggregation-induced emission fluorogens (AIEgens) is developed to monitor multiscale material dynamics. Their high-contrast fluorescence enables the correlation of molecular motions, microscopic particle coalescence, and macroscopic drying within a single optical framework. This overcomes limitations of multi-platform methods, offering a generalizable approach for holistic process analysis in complex systems like polymer emulsions.

A glacier on the Eastern Antarctic Peninsula has experienced the fastest recorded ice loss in modern history, according to a landmark study co-authored by Swansea University.

Researchers at the Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI), Kanazawa University, report in ACS Applied Nano Materials a new method to precisely measure nuclear elasticity—the stiffness or softness of the cell nucleus—in living cells. By employing a technique called Nanoendoscopy-AFM (NE-AFM), which inserts a nanoneedle probe directly into cells, the team revealed how cancer cell nuclei stiffen or soften depending on chromatin structure and environmental conditions.

The findings provide fundamental insights into how the physical properties of cancer cell nuclei change during disease progression, highlighting their potential as biomarkers for diagnosis and treatment evaluation.