Imagine creating a material for the digital information highway that allows a fast lane of laser light that zips data past the traditional silicon chips. A multi-institutional team of researchers, led by University of Arkansas engineering professor Shui-Qing “Fisher” Yu and a leading Arkansas semiconductor equipment manufacturer, have made significant improvements to a new kind of laser, a semiconducting device that is injec...

Daniel Whitmire, a retired astrophysicist who teaches mathematics at the University of Arkansas, once thought the cosmic silence indicated we as a species lagged far behind. "I taught astronomy for 37 years," said Whitmire. "I used to tell my students that by statistics, we have to be the dumbest guys in the galaxy. After all we have only been technological for about 100 years while other civilizations could be more technologically advanced ...

In a computational study published in the Journal of The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society, University of Arkansas engineering researchers found that nanocomposites composed of layers of nickel and graphene—a promising material for flexible electronics devices—can be tuned for optimal fracture strength by manipulating the structural arrangement of the graphene sheets.

An international group of physicists discovered a phenomenon of large magnitude in an unexpected class of materials that can lead to a variety of devices used in optical systems. That phenomenon – the elasto-optic effect – characterises the formation of a periodic variance of light refraction when an acoustic wave propagates in optical materials, said Yurong Yang, a research assistant professor at the University of Arkansas who led th...

An international research group led by physicists at the University of Arkansas created magnetic two-dimensional metal in an artificial oxide material that could be used to make better transistors. Physicists hope to harness the power of an electron's spin to make spin transport electronics—spintronics—multifunctional computational devices that could replace hundreds of conventional devices, said Jak Chakhalian, professor of physics a...