PhD students under the guidance of Associate Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology Kalaichelvi Saravanamuttu described a new computational method in published in the scientific journal Nature. For the calculations, the scientists used a soft polymer material that turns from a liquid to a gel in response to light. The scientists call this polymer "a next-generation autonomous material that responds to stimuli and performs intelligent operations."
Calculations using this material do not require a power source and work entirely in the visible spectrum. This technology belongs to a branch of chemistry called non-linear dynamics, which studies materials designed and manufactured to create specific responses to light. To perform the calculations, the researchers pass multi-layer bands of light through the top and sides of a tiny glass case that contains an amber-colored polymer about the size of a die. The polymer initially has the form of a liquid, but under the influence of light turns into a gel. The neutral beam passes through the cube from behind to the camera, which reads the result of changing the material in the cube, the components of which spontaneously form into thousands of threads that react to the patterns of light, creating a three-dimensional structure that expresses the result of the calculation. At the same time, the material in the cube reacts intuitively to light in much the same way as a plant turns towards the sun, or a cuttlefish changes its skin color.
“We're very excited to be able to do additions and subtractions this way, and we're thinking about ways to do other computational functions,” says Saravanamuttu.
“We don't have a goal of competing with existing computer technology,” says study co-author Fariha Mahmood, a chemistry master's student. “We are trying to create materials with more intelligent and sophisticated responses.”
The new material paves the way for exciting applications, from low-power autonomous sensing, including tactile and visual information, to artificial intelligence systems, the scientists say.
“When stimulated by electromagnetic, electrical, chemical, or mechanical signals, these flexible polymer architectures transition between states, exhibiting discrete changes in physical or chemical properties that can be used as biosensors for controlled drug delivery, photon band break tuning, surface deformation, and more.” , scientists say.
Source: 3dnews.ru