A new publication by Staacks et al. about the Bluetooth interface of the physics education app "phyphox".

Abstract:

In order to extend the available sensors of smartphone experiments with cheap microcontroller-based external sensors, the smartphone experimentation app 'phyphox' has been extended with a generic Bluetooth Low Energy interface. Since its application requires an in-depth understanding of the underlying technologies, the direct use of that interface for educational purposes is limited. To avoid this difficulty, the functionality was encapsulated into an Arduino and MicroPython library. With these, also educators and learners with only rudimentary programming knowledge can integrate an app-based interface into microcontroller projects with only few lines of code. This opens a wide range of new learning opportunities, which are described exemplarily.

Adv. Sci. 18, 2409039 (2025)
Encapsulating few-layer graphene (FLG) in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) can cause nanoscale inhomogeneities in the FLG, including changes in stacking domains and topographic defects. Due to the diffraction limit, characterizing these inhomogeneities is challenging. Recently, the visualization of stacking domains in encapsulated four-layer graphene (4LG) has been demonstrated with phonon polariton (PhP)-assisted near-field imaging. However, the underlying coupling mechanism and ability to image subdiffractional-sized inhomogeneities remain unknown. Here, direct replicas and magnified images of subdiffractional-sized inhomogeneities in hBN-covered trilayer graphene (TLG) and encapsulated 4LG, enabled by the hyperlensing effect, are retrieved. This hyperlensing effect is mediated by hBN's hyperbolic PhP that couple to the FLG's plasmon polaritons. Using near-field microscopy, the coupling is identified by determining the polariton dispersion in hBN-covered TLG to be stacking-dependent. This work demonstrates super-resolution and magnified imaging of inhomogeneities, paving the way for the realization of homogeneous encapsulated FLG transport samples to study correlated physics.

Scientists from the Peter Grünberg Institute (PGI) gathered today for the annual PGI-Forum to share research updates, spark new collaborations, and exchange ideas. Christoph Stampfer's presentation on "2D Materials for Next Generation Computing" sparked engaging discussions. Once again, the forum proved to be a very lively event.