Flying Saucers?

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Project 1794. An early prototype of a real flying saucer,

Declassified: America's Secret Flying Saucer
https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a8699/declassified-americas-secret-flying-saucer-15075926/
By Joe Pappalardo, Feb 10, 2013

In the 1950s, a small team of engineers set to work on a secret program called Project 1794—a supersonic craft designed to shoot down Soviet bombers. Now a trove of declassified documents reveals the audacious mission to build a flying saucer.
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Frost's design was detailed in a 117-page report—the same document that ultimately was unearthed by the NDC. The proposed craft featured a central turbine, called a turborotor, powered by six turbojet engines. The turborotor sucked in air that was directed through the body of the aircraft. The exhaust exited from vents placed along the circumference of the aluminum saucer; vanes and shutters directed the exhaust toward the ground to hover.

Airman. I easily found the 117pg report referred to in the PM article. Project 1794 Final Development Summary Report 2April-30May 1956. The next three images come from that report. I altered the third by rotating it to horizontal.






Again quoting from the Popular Mechanics article.

Getting off the ground is easy. Then it happens, as it always does: When the saucer rises above its 3-foot cushion of exhaust, it starts to buck like a rodeo bull. The researchers are crestfallen; they've seen this instability before. They call it hubcapping, after the circular way a car hubcap oscillates on its rim when dropped on hard ground. Potocki aborts the flight and sets the Avrocar down.

Over the years the engineers would test wide-ranging methods to control their craft: shaped nozzles, spoilers, skirts, bigger engine transition doors, vanes—even, at the suggestion of the Air Force, and to Frost's dismay, a tail. Nothing worked. The Avrocar never achieved stability in the air, and it never traveled faster than 30 knots or higher than 3 feet. So much for intercepting bombers.

Airman.Despite the impressive attempt, there’s not a whole lot here. Where’s the spin? This flying saucer is better described as a circular flying wing with a complex air intake and engine exhaust systems that apparently didn't work. I believe the “hubcapping” problem occurs because there’s no spin stabilization. I guess I just included the Project 1794 information for the Popular Mechanics article and pictures.

Any discussion?
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Back to the Mars Helicopter.

Airman wrote. Alien Flying Propellers on Mars eh? Kinda sounds like the Drones in a vacuum experimental suggestion above - with vacuum at 1% earth standard atmosphere. I expect the drone will work, more on that later. Considering the stated 40,000ft helicopter altitude limit here on Earth vice the 100,000ft equivalent atmospheric pressure on Mars, why would they expect the drone to work at all? Wouldn't it be easier to perform the experiment at 1% standard air pressure or vacuum first? After all, they don't know that on its surface, Mars emits a stronger charge field than Earth does on its surface. It's such a tiny experiment. I must be missing something

Airman. Well, yes. Here's an image from 48 seconds into the previous youtube video I posted Mars Helicopter https://youtu.be/oOMQOqKRWjU.  


We hear and see the rotors spinning, the copter on the floor, Quote “24 hundred, 26 hundred” and the copter lifts in the controlled experiment.

I also have additional information, from the Keck Institute for Space Studies http://kiss.caltech.edu/lectures/Aung_Lecture_2015.html, which links to the youtube file,
Mars Helicopter Scout [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3y7iJEe7uM KISSCaltech]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3y7iJEe7uM[/url]

KISSCaltech
Published on Nov 12, 2015
MiMi Aung, the Autonomous Systems Deputy Division Manager at JPL, presented the Mars Helicopter Scout at the Keck Institute for Space Studies lecture on April 1, 2015. The Mars Helicopter Scout is a current proposal to demonstrate helicopter flight at Mars on the Mars 2020 mission.The Mars Helicopter Scout will scout ahead of a planetary surface rover to provide high-resolution aerial images of the terrain for science and operational purposes. This talk described the scope of the Mars Helicopter Scout proposal, the signficant science and operational benefits of a helicopter in planetary surface exploration, and the technical design overview of Mars Helicopter Scout. … .

Airman. Initial testing and analysis of the Mars Helicopter has been successfully completed – lift was generated by co-axial rotors under Mars-like conditions. The idea was shelved pending the decision earlier this month by NASA to include it in the 2020 rover mission.

This image contains most of the Scout’s details. Both of the two-bladed counter-rotating propeller rotors are 1.1m in diameter. I don’t see a pitch adjustment mechanism. MiMi Aung mentioned that the max tangential spin velocity for rotors is the speed of sound – how does that work on Mars? I might suggest we could increase the charge lift created by replacing the currently planned rotor blades with ones where most of the rotor’s mass is closer to the highest spin velocity at the rotor’s outer edge.

The mainstream’s standard pressure fluid lift theory cannot explain how lift and thrust can be generated in the relative vacuum of Mars’ atmosphere - there’s not enough air for propellers to pull or push. Read the youtube comments, some people are very upset at NASA as well as with their own educations.

The charge field exists. Miles has proven that with at least a thousand examples. I think we can safely add the Mars Helicopter Scout to the list.

If I say something that you feel doesn’t agree with your charge field understanding, please jump in.
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No peeps; fair enough, I’ll need to make a better case for Coaxial Rotors.

Let me remind the reader, the goal here is to improve charge field awareness by choosing interesting “lift” subjects and seeing where the charge field takes us. I don’t have a lesson plan and I rarely read beyond the current idea being presented. I’m not trying to explain or entertain. I am trying to figure it out - in the open - in an effort to promote charge field physics with forum discussion. Until then, I’m dragging the reader through my stream of consciousness. Bear in mind, by the end of the thread I hope the reader may design her own flying saucer.

Coaxial Rotors. I found a great into to Coaxial Rotor Helicopters by Trevor English at http://shortsleeveandtieclub.com/ Trevor’s article includes the youtube video below as well as two nice gifs. I’ll quote his entire text, although I’ll interrupt it twice to add my charge field comments.

http://shortsleeveandtieclub.com/the-perfect-helicopter-understanding-coaxial-rotor-design/
How to Create the PERFECT Helicopter
https://youtu.be/a3IMqkffIFo

Published on Oct 10, 2017

The majority of helicopters are built using tail rotor systems, but this may not be the best design. Coaxial helicopters and the advantages they bring may be the future of helicopter engineering. Lockheed Martin along with Sikorsky have embarked on a journey to create a new breed of coaxial craft that could spell the future for multi-purpose helicopters. In this video, we take a look at not only this innovation, but just what makes coaxial craft potentially superior to other designs.

The Perfect Helicopter: Understanding Coaxial Rotor Design
April 4, 2017, by: Trevor English
Trevor English. Coaxial rotor designs have been used on military helicopters for the better part of the last 75 years. The design eliminates the need for a tail rotor and creates a much more stable, and safer, machine.

In order to understand how a design with two coaxial rotors far outperforms other helicopters, we have to examine the physics at play. For single-rotor helicopters, lift is generated through the main rotor rotating. This rotation generates torque about the main helicopter, which causes the main fuselage to want to spin around in the opposite direction. Early engineers designed the tail rotor to counter this torque and keep helicopters stable. Tail rotors are generally much smaller rotors mounted on a perpendicular axis to the main rotor. By controlling the speed of the tail rotor, the pilot can stabilize the craft as well as control direction of the helicopter.

Slowing the tail rotor would cause the helicopter body to rotate in the opposite direction of the main rotor due to excess torque in that direction. Speeding up the tail rotor would do the opposite. Along with direction, helicopter pilots can control the yaw of the craft by adjusting the angle of the tail rotor. By pitching the tail rotor slightly up or down, the pilot creates a moment arm through the helicopter which in turn adjusts the yaw of the craft.

Airman. Single - rotor helicopters generate torque on the body of the helicopter that must be countered by adding a tail rotor. Trevor didn’t explain why the torque is generated, in the video the narrator says that there is a net motion due to excess torque, that’s not an explanation.

The definition of charge lift easily explains why. Once again, as with the spinning disc, we must consider both the rotor’s forward and spin velocities, Vf and Vs, orthogonal to the earth’s emission field. A single rotor will feel maximum charge lift where Vf and Vs are in the same direction, while the least charge lift is created where Vf and Vs are in opposite directions.

A spinning disk that generates the same uneven charge lift is free to rotate its spin axis away from the vertical – recall understable, stable and overstable discs, defined in terms of how quickly they rotate away from their vertical spin axis in response to uneven charge lift. A spinning rotor is engine driven and of sufficient mass to prevent any axis rotation. The rotor behaves like a very stable gyroscope. The uneven charge lift felt by the rotor is equivalent to a tilting force applied to a gyroscope resulting in precession. The tail rotor’s primary purpose is to counter gyroscopic precession caused by uneven charge lift felt on the forward moving spinning rotor. The skilled pilot uses the tail rotor for additional control.

Trevor English. Now that we understand the basic mechanics of single-rotor helicopters, we can begin to see why coaxial rotors might present some advantages. By placing two rotors on a single axis and rotating them in opposite directions, a net zero torque around the main body of the helicopter is created, keeping it very stable. Through both mechanical means and electronic means, each rotor is perfectly timed and controlled to cancel out the net torque of the other rotor in real time. This allows coaxial craft to achieve rather significant hovering capabilities when compared to their single-rotor brethren.
 
Airman. I put together the following information that shows the magnitudes of the orthogonal velocities occurring for each rotor at the 0000, 0300, 0600, 0900, and center – 0 positions.

Calculating Coaxial Rotor Velocity Magnitudes. (As I did with the Frisbee flying disc, http://milesmathis.the-talk.net/t453p25-flying-saucers#3612). These velocities are orthogonal to the Earth's Emission Field, Charge lift is a function of these velocities.

When viewed from above, the Forward velocity Vf, is vertically upward on the page. The rotors are: S1 spinning clockwise (CW) at tangential spin velocity Vs1; and S2 is spinning CCW at the tangential spin velocity Vs2. Let: Vs1 = -Vs2; magnitude V = |V|; |Vs1| = |Vs2| = V; |Vf | = V. The magnitude of the orthogonal velocity Vo, is then calculated for 5 positions for each rotor.

0000 (or 1200) position:
S1. Vo = sqrt[Vf^2 + Vs1^2] = sqrt[2* V^2] = 1.41V.
S2. Vo = sqrt[Vf^2 + Vs2^2] = sqrt[2* V^2] = 1.41V.
Vt = 1.41+ 1.41V = 2.82V.
0300 position:
S1. Vo = Vf + Vs1 = V - V = 0V.
S2. Vo = Vf + Vs2 = V + V = 2V.
Vt = 0V + 2V = 2V.
0600 position:
S1. Vo = sqrt[Vf^2 + Vs1^2] = sqrt[2* V^2] = 1.41V.
S2. Vo = sqrt[Vf^2 + Vs2^2] = sqrt[2* V^2] = 1.41V.
Vt = 1.41+ 1.41V = 2.82V.
0900 position:
S1. Vo = Vf + Vs1 = V + V = 2V.
S2. Vo = Vf + Vs2 = V - V = 0V.
Vt = 0 + 2V = 2V.
Center position:
S1. Vo = Vf + Vs1 = V + 0 = V.
S2. Vo = Vf + Vs2 = V + 0 = V.
Vt = V + V = 2V.

I believe each of the two rotors contributes lift and so the two rotor velocities must add. Both velocity sets are directly added for the total coaxial rotor velocities. Anyone agree or disagree?

1200: Vt = 1.41+ 1.41V = 2.82V
0300: Vt = 0V + 2V = 2V.
0600: Vt = 1.41+ 1.41V = 2.82V
0900: Vt = 2V + 0V = 2V.
Center: Vt = V + V = 2V.

The total velocities at each of the three positions: 0300, Center, and 0900 add to 2V. The front and back spin edges of the coaxial rotors are moving fastest with respect to earth’s emission at 2.82V, resulting in two maximum charge lift points. Since those two positions are on opposite sides of the rotor, the two tilting forces applied will cancel and so gyroscopic precession will not occur. Likewise, the maximum velocity – 2V - of each individual rotor also causes two simultaneous tilting forces at 0300 and 0900 which also cancel.
 
Trevor English. When you think of helicopters, you think of vertical takeoff and the ability to hover. Remove those aspects, and the helicopter functions identically to a plane. As a side note, vertical takeoff isn’t exclusive to rotor craft, however planes that harness the ability without rotors – mainly the harrier jet – accomplish the task with much less efficiency and stability.

A helicopter’s ability to hover and be stable is synonymous with its quality of being a helicopter. In coaxial designs, the improved ability to hover and maintain stable flight ultimately make for better helicopters. Better helicopters mean that they are easier to control and much safer for the occupants. Theoretically, if one rotor broke in a coaxial system, the craft could still be landed safely.
Lastly, the application of coaxial rotors means that there is no inherent need for the craft to have a gyroscope to provide stability. The rotational effects of both rotors provide for a near perfect gyroscope, improving the stability of the craft once more.

So why don’t we see more coaxial helicopters? They aren’t without their faults.

The first main fault is that the timing of the two rotor blades needs to be near perfect. Speed and directional changes need to be accomplished together. Even the slightest fault in calibration essentially makes the aircraft unstable and unflyable. A fault in calibration is worse than you probably think for the craft’s ability to fly. If the timing is off enough, coaxial helicopters won’t produce enough lift to even leave the ground and end up just spinning on the tarmac.

On top of the need for accuracy in the tuning of the rotors, these rotors tend not to be as responsive as single rotor craft. When you make an aircraft more stable, you generally make precise movements harder to achieve – it’s a constant tradeoff in aerospace engineering. While coaxial helicopters are safe and efficient, they are not well suited for applications where pilots need fine maneuverability. They are, however, perfect for applications where precise hovering is needed.

The coaxial rotor design is one of the most prominent helicopter designs to date. While it has it’s inefficiencies, it won’t be going away anytime soon. The stability of the design is popular within the hobbyist community and even many military and rescue helicopters to date. If you were designing a helicopter, which design would you choose?

Airman. All good information. Let me rephrase that. If you were designing a flying saucer, which design would you choose?

P.S. Some small corrections: 3 procession to precession, a few number corrections and added the sentence beginning with Likewise.

P.P.S. Trevor English wrote. The first main fault is that the timing of the two rotor blades needs to be near perfect. Speed and directional changes need to be accomplished together.
Airman. If you hadn’t already noticed, I must point out that the 0000, 0300, 0600, 0900, positions are important; that’s where the rotor’s maximum and minimum orthogonal velocities are created, where tilt and counter-tilt must occur. If Vs1 = -Vs2, the two twin-bladed counter-rotating rotors must align twice during each full rotor rotation. “Perfect timing” can only be achieved when each rotor extends to both: 0000/0600; or 0300/0900 – simultaneously; call it spin rate and angle synchronization.

Of course, the coaxial helicopter isn’t being lifted by just the 0000, 0300, 0600, 0900, and center positions alone. All the atoms of which the rotors are comprised are lifted to varying degrees, corresponding to the amount of planetary emissions they receive. Most emissions intercepted, or charge lift generated, lies closest to the highest velocity rotor edge.

I’ll also point out that I’ve concentrated on constant velocity, things get more complicated with speed and direction changes.
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Nice research LTAM.  How to develop a craft to tap the charge field at different heights/gravity? Could a craft be built that could adapt dynamically...just to get a little extra lift?

Found these that may be of interest:
https://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/researchers-say-triquad-is-more-efficient-than-a-quad


http://www.krossblade.com/disc-loading-and-hover-efficiency/





An extreme example of this is the AeroVelo Atlas shown left, a human powered quadrotor. Due to ultra-light weight construction it only weighs 128 kg (282 lb) with pilot (which can produce about 1 hp), but it has a massive disc area of almost 1,300 sqm (14,000 sqf). This is more than twice the disc area of the largest helicopter in the US military, the Sikorsky CH53 E Super Stallion, which with a maximum weight of 33,000 kg (74,000 lb) is almost  300 times more heavy than the AeroVelo Atlas. The Atlas' super low disc loading of 0.1 kg/sqm translates into a hover efficiency of 128 kg/hp. CH 53E on the other hand, with its disc loading of around 70 kg/sqm (700 times more heavily loaded than the ATLAS), requires around 10,000 hp to take off which translates into a hover efficiency of only 3.3 kg/hp. The Atlas hence has a hover efficiency around 40 times better than the Super Stallion. An even more extreme example is the F 35 Lightning. It's thrust vectoring and lift fan VTOL system has a disc area of only around 6 sqm (60 sqf) for a weight of up to 30,000 kg (66,000 lb), giving it a disc lading of around 5,000 kg/sqm, around 50,000 times more heavily loaded than the ATLAS. Consequently the F35 requires around 30,000 hp to take off, meaning that it's hover efficiency is only 1 kg/hp, 128 times less efficient than the ATLAS.

Hover efficiency versus disc loading. Lower disc loading is more efficient, meaning less power is required to hover. (Krossblade) Hover efficiency versus disc loading. Lower disc loading is more efficient, meaning less power is required to hover. (Krossblade)

Hover efficiency versus disc loading. Lower disc loading is more efficient, meaning less power is required to hover. (Krossblade)

The general relationship between disc loading and hover efficiency is shown in the graph on the right. What a rotor basically does is to push air downwards in order to push itself upwards (Newton's third law). Broadly speaking, producing the same upwards force, it is more energy efficient to do this moving a larger volume of air downwards more slowly, than moving a smaller volume of air downwards more quickly. This also means that not only does a higher disc loading lead to lower efficiency, it also leads to more severe down wash (the air that for example a helicopter blows downwards and into the faces of onlookers) and also to larger noise from the faster moving blades and air.

So why not make helicopters with huge disc areas, thousands of square meters (tens of thousands of sqf) in order to lift off with very little power? There are several reasons:

1) Large blades make the helicopter more sensitive to wind gusts, the heli becomes less stable

2) Very large and very slowly moving blades would limit the possible forward speed to only a few kph or mph

3) Space considerations also guide helicopter design, a heli has to be able to land in small spaces and park

4) Large blades are technically more challenging to build and can get very heavy

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Cr6 wrote. Nice research LTAM. How to develop a craft to tap the charge field at different heights/gravity? Could a craft be built that could adapt dynamically...just to get a little extra lift?
Airman. Hi Cr6, thanks for helping me collect my wits. I added a PPS to my previous post. What research? There’s too much information so I’m trying to cut back.
 
I’ll admit I’m happy I included the spin component, Vs, in accordance with Miles’ definition of charge lift. Lift is a function of the object’s velocity orthogonal to Earth emission field, so that, Vo = Vf +Vs. Of course, my ‘charge lift’ diagram doesn’t exactly agree with existing lift diagrams; take this mainstream single-rotor for example.
 
Dissymmetry of Lift
http://www.copters.com/aero/lift_dissymetry.html

QUOTE. Dissymmetry of lift is the difference in lift that exists between the advancing half of the rotor disk and the retreating half. It is caused by the fact that in directional flight the aircraft relative wind is added to the rotational relative wind on the advancing blade, and subtracted on the retreating blade. The blade passing the tail and advancing around the right side of the helicopter has an increasing airspeed which reaches maximum at the 34 o'clock position. As the blade continues, the airspeed reduces to essentially rotational airspeed over the nose of the helicopter. Leaving the nose, the blade airspeed progressively decreases and reaches minimum airspeed at the 9 o'clock position. The blade airspeed then increases progressively and again reaches rotational airspeed as it passes over the tail. UNQUOTE.

Airman. Looking down on a counter clockwise spinning rotor advancing in the forward (upward in the page image) direction. According to the mainstream, lift is created at the “advancing” or “leading”, along the rotor blades’ length, resulting in a maximum lift created at the 0300 rotor direction. This mainstream differential airspeed lift model does not account or allow for lift created when rotors are extended in the 0000/0600 directions. I’ve shown that the charge lift model does.

Most aircraft are built for efficiency; given strict power, performance and weight limits - dynamic costs extra. The SkyCruiser, on the bottom left of the efficiency/power chart you posted is a good example. It utilizes quad rotors for lift, then the craft switches to rear rotors for horizontal thrust – airplane mode, during which the quad rotors are retracted into the fuselage, very smooth. On the right side of the chart we have a fighter jet with thrust vectoring for vertical take-offs or landings, as well as high speed horizontal thrust; it’s dynamic – and wildly expensive.

Given the charge field, can we design craft with a little extra lift? I believe so. I’ll share more on that later. I’m still considering possibilities that I cannot believe have not already been tried. In general, it seems helicopters - quads and coaxials - are enjoying a bit of revival, probably because of drones. Here’s a nice aviation discussion from stackexchange.

Why haven't quadcopters been scaled up yet?
https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/3300/why-havent-quadcopters-been-scaled-up-yet

QUOTE. Four rotor copters were actually the first copters...
Raúl Pateras Pescara, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1916

UNQUOTE.

Airman. This 1931 helicopter looks to me to be a coaxial dual quad, and it also appears to have a small forward 4 bladed rotor.
Given the stackexchange question, the top answer belongs to Jan H. I’ll quote one paragraph.
 
Jan wrote. And why can't full-scale helicopters use electric motors like the small ones? The reason is that when you scale an airfoil up, the lift it produces increases with its area, which grows with the second power of size, but its weight increases with volume, which grows with the third power of size. Therefore models have much more lift for weight and can afford simple but relatively heavy batteries while full-size aircraft need propulsion systems with higher power density.
Airman. I believe that answer is consistent with the mainstream assumption that air is a fluid. We know that is incorrect in that it ignores the charge field.
 
As I’ve constantly been reminding the reader, every atom within the volume of the airfoil will feel charge lift according to its orthogonal velocity through the emission field. Yes, charge lifted air and propeller thrust add complexity; still, charge lift applies to the entire volume and not just surface area.

Granted, there’s a huge performance difference between aircraft and small models. There’s also a perfectly good charge field explanation. Recall that humans occupy the meter scale, where gravity and charge balance. Objects smaller than a meter are in the charge realm, while larger objects interact mainly with gravity. I’m sure this answer is essentially correct, but I’m not sure what it means. For example, here’s a question I haven’t been able to answer.

QUESTION. Earth charge emission counters 0.1% of gravity for an adult human. Would a house fly also enjoy the same 0.1% gravity reduction? If so, what’s the difference?
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Cr6 wrote. Could a craft be built that could adapt dynamically...just to get a little extra lift?

Airman. Yes, but having given it some thought, I don’t believe “a little extra lift” means what you think it means. For example, let’s take a ride on a thought train – something fast and smooth – a hovertrain will do; and bring a weight scale.

The Problem With Fast Trains: What Happened to Hovertrains?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUXEFj0t7Ek


Ok, with the train and us in motion, at any velocity orthogonal to the earth’s emission field, we must be receiving increased charge lift. The train can “adapt dynamically” by increasing speed.  Our weight - gravity minus charge lift - should reduce. Please stand on the scale and check. Normal, right? How can that be true? Does that invalidate the charge lift model?

My guess is the entire train, as well as us, the scale you are standing on and the air in the cabin are being charge lifted to the same degree and so – at least as far as I imagine - the scale doesn’t measure any decrease in weight. However, if we replace the scale with a different measuring device, such as pendulums – as in Miles’ Allais paper – I believe we should see an increased charge lift and reduction of weight aboard the moving train as an increase in a pendulum’s fundamental period - the time it takes for the pendulum to complete a single back and forth swing.

The same thinking pertains my house fly question. Yes, I suppose the fly feels the “same” 0.1% gravity reduction, and on the train it would receive the same increased charge lift we would. In either case, the fly’s small mass and physical dimensions – much smaller than a meter - along with its amazing velocity and acceleration capabilities allow the fly to exceed the acceleration due to gravity on Earth (9.8m/s^2). Objects larger than a meter generally have slower velocities and take a greater amount of time or energy to accelerate to higher speeds, as in the human powered quad copter posted above – built as light as possible.
   
Moving at higher and higher velocity orthogonal to the earth’s surface results in increasing charge lift. If, by “a little extra lift”, you meant negative buoyancy or weightlessness, then I guess the craft must be able to reach orbital velocity - actually an acceleration - curved motion about the planet, at which time we would float inside our craft. I would then give you a battery powered hand held propeller someone might use to cool themselves off in hot weather, it will allow you to easily propel yourself through the craft’s weightless conditions.

Agree, disagree?
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Somehow, the train has remained on track, while moving at hundreds of times faster than sound – along the earth’s surface, and orthogonal to the earth’s emissions. You may recall Cr6 and I had achieved weightlessness and so I gave Cr6 a tiny propeller for “a little extra lift”. I was hoping to avoid the inevitable childlike behavior - bouncing and careening in all directions - .

A train usually travels at a maximum forward velocity in a straight path on the Earth’s surface. Of course, the Earth isn’t flat; at orbital velocity, motion along a well-designed track of the future requires that the track keep the train on the earth’s surface; I like the idea of underground partial vacuum tubes to minimize air resistance. During weightlessness, the track must impose a downward velocity equal in magnitude to the train’s very high forward velocity. For the calculation I’m thinking the orbital velocity should be equal to Earth’s radius divided by 18 minutes (earth radius doubling period), which gives me a forward velocity of about 106km/sec – but I’m not at all confident with that result.

Before we reach orbital velocity, we could probably experience any weight we wanted - as long as it is less than g - by selecting the appropriate forward velocity; again, the track will impose the corresponding downward velocity. Those two orthogonal velocities together create the acceleration necessary in order to achieve the desired weight.

Curved motion about a circular track around the earth.

Any mistakes, questions or comments?

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No surprise, I’ve been considering flying saucer design requirements a lot lately. After watching a fast train video on youtube, I tried a suggested link - Reactionless UFO Propulsion #2. A minute and a half section, early in the video sounded good enough to share here. The narrator’s tone and cello accompaniment made listening meditative; you may appreciate my transcription instead. Oh, I never tried the cc button before; hah, my transcript’s better. Something new every day.

Reactionless UFO Propulsion #2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aSX9TakHnc

Bantokfomoki. Published on May 7, 2010. 9 min:59 sec in length.

From: 0:34 to 2:06 the Narrator states:

QUOTE: My proposal is that something rotates in the UFO and the centrifugal vectors are made to be non-coplanar with the rotation.

If one could point these centrifugal vectors out of the plane of rotation, accelerations of a hundred g’s and more are easily realizable and the conservation laws are no are longer an impediment because you are then violating them with impunity.

One of the aspects of such a system of propulsion is that the weight of the rotating part should be as heavy as possible because it needs to propel the deadweight of the rest of the craft.

And trace cases of UFO landings indicate that their mass density correspond more to submarine densities than to a jet fighter or aircraft.

I expect the craft itself to be made of the lightest strongest materials and the propulsion system’s rotational part to be as heavy as possible.

To get the required vectors out of the plane of rotation requires some action to get them to shift.

The things that one can do to accomplish this are extremely limited.


We can subject the wheel to intense magnetic or electric fields, and perhaps heat it or cool it to superconducting temperatures.

That’s all there is in this universe to operate on the wheel. If the forgoing doesn’t do the trick nothing else will. For we are then left with just wishing and clicking our heels together. … UNQUOTE.

The image shows one of the "extremely limited" ways we may possibly shift a vector out of the plane of rotation – using intense magnetic fields. Getting required vectors “out of the plane of rotation” via “reactionless propulsion” sounds new to me. Is there anything to it? On the spin side, I’ve learned a bit more about spinning and forward motion so I would add -

The rotational system should include contra-rotating rotors or masses.

It looks to me like I may need to reconsider Otis T Carr’s X-1 again.
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Could the extra lift come from a graphene blade that could adapt programmatically "on-the-fly" so to speak. For some reason the lift from old copper plated wings comes to mind.

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Thanks Cr6,

Charge lift.

Lift - or charge lift – pertains to the amount of charge emission a body feels in opposition to gravity. Here on Earth’s surface, lying, standing or siting, we would weigh 0.1% more were it not for the Earth’s vertical emission field bombarding all of our atomic matter upward. I suppose I agree, 0.1% seems like a small amount of lift – a thousandth of our weight - can we generate more? Yes.
   
The first and easiest way to feel “extra lift” is by forward motion – velocity orthogonal to the earth’s emission field. Walking creates extra lift. We feel a great deal of extra lift when we run or sprint.  Additional lift is felt at higher velocities. This lift is felt equally throughout the object in motion.

The next way to add “extra lift” is by adding spin motion (with spin axis parallel the earth’s emission field). This lift is felt as a function of distance from the center of rotation. Rotation creates a new outward emission field. I believe Miles addressed the additional lift felt by rotation as upward charge that is redirected outward – turning charge. With the Lifter, we saw that turning charge alone - at tens of thousands of volts - was sufficient to keep the lifter suspended in the air. It’s not at all clear to me how forward linear motion turns charge.

I believe we can create additional lift by increasing either mass volume or mass density; it will take additional energy to move those additional masses, but the efficiency gained may justify the effort.

Cr6 wrote. Could the extra lift come from a graphene blade that could adapt programmatically "on-the-fly" so to speak. For some reason the lift from old copper plated wings comes to mind.

Propellers.

The first complication is an air or fluid medium which is also charge lifted – I assume at 0.1%. Moving air or water causes extra lift and flows. Ancient technology - spinning propellers – have been shown to generate thrust – motion in the direction of the propeller spin axis - that can far exceed the charge lift or charge turning I’ve been describing.

Can spinning propellers be used to cause thrust in a vacuum? I don't know, but I believe so, the vacuum must act like a very thin fluid. Proof is the Mars Scout Helo with counter-rotating, 1.1m diameter rotors spinning at 2400 rpm. The prototype was shown to generate lift in Martian simulated 1% Earth atmosphere. How can that be? We know about the charge field; they, presumably, do not.

So how do propellers work in vacuum? Can varying such propeller blade pitches affect the resultant direction of thrust? I'll keep thinking about it.

Flying Saucers? My first Flying Saucer design is comparable to an alpha, a helium atom. Two counter rotating coaxial rotor masses resemble the two opposite polarity alpha proton emission fields. Living quarters would be aboard the "neutrons" spinning at a much slower velocity - in order to generate gravity - between the two counter-rotating rotor masses. Modeling a spacecraft after an atom or molecule makes a great deal of sense in providing additional charge protection when rotating masses intercept and channel increased charge densities outward.  
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Demonstrating some progress - mostly with Autocad. The program will not allow each section its own rotation, but you get the idea.


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And I believe a slightly better second effort. A saucer that opens up into a sort of pinwheel. Again, if the bottom rotors are going to the right - as shown below, then the top propeller rotors should be rotating to the left - they are not; as far as I know, my Autocad doesn't allow it. The four neutrons can spin in a single direction independently of the top or bottom rotors.



The closed - and counter-rotating saucer may provide all the lift necessary in space; however, in Earth atmosphere, I believe the saucer would need to open up into a pinwheel in order to generate thrust.
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Looking cool! Didn't know about these prototypes.

Found something that may be of interest. How to stop a missle?
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"It Looks Like An Ascending Missile," Unidentified Object Photographed Over Washington State, Navy Denies

by Tyler Durden
Wed, 06/13/2018 - 11:45

It’s time to get out that tinfoil hat.

Greg Johnson of Skunk Bay Weather, a local weather website that runs camera enabled weather stations on the northern Kitsap Peninsula; Kitsap County, Washington, recorded a mysterious object early Sunday morning that has social media buzzing.

One of Johnson’s weather stations has a camera monitoring the Puget Sound at Whidbey Island from Skunk Bay, and at 3:56 a.m. Sunday by a high-resolution, 20-second exposure camera, snapped what looks like the impossible — a missile blasting off from what seems to be the Naval Air Station Whidbey Island.

My good night cam picked up what appears to be a large missile launch on Whidbey Island Sunday AM. I sat on it for a while. After sharing with Cliff Mass he did a blog on it. https://t.co/jBPXRtRGFP @NWSSeattle @WunderCave @WeatherNation pic.twitter.com/RnN8H3IsQ9
— Skunkbayweather (@Skunkbayweather) June 11, 2018

Johnson told KCPQ13 Washington, he was at first hesitant to release the photo into the public domain because he said it appears to be a missile launch from the Naval Air Station Whidbey Island across the bay.

“I feel strongly it was a missile launch,” Johnson said.

But Tom Mills, a spokesperson for NAS Whidbey Island, told KCPQ13 that “It wasn’t a missile launch from the facility. There are no missile launch capabilities on the Navy base at Whidbey Island.”

“There’s a lot of speculation around here,” Mills said, as he conveniently suggested to KCPQ13 that the image could be a lens flare. “But it’s definitely not a missile launch.”

Cliff Mass, a professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington, speculated that the object looks like a missile on his blog Monday.

“I’ve seen a lot of stuff,” Mass wrote. “But nothing like this.”

“It really looks like an ascending missile,” he added.

There was reportedly Alaska Flight 94 and a helicopter in the region of the northern Kitsap Peninsula at the same time the camera snapped the mysterious object.

In responding to speculation of various aircraft overhead, Johnson said, “For the record… My cams pick up airplanes all the time… I can guarantee this is NOT an airplane. They fly buy much higher and have a whole different signature….. I’ll grab a plane image and share it.”

For the record... My cams pick up airplanes all the time... I can guarantee this is NOT an airplane. They fly buy much higher and have a whole different signature..... I'll grab a plane image and share it.
— Skunkbayweather (@Skunkbayweather) June 11, 2018

Furthermore, The Drive points out that there are no rocket operations of any kind in the region. However, the “closest thing to something like that would be the Ohio class nuclear ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) based not too far away at Bangor Trident Base/Naval Submarine Base Bangor.”

http://skunkbayweather.com/

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A possible new technology for jet engines?

Scientists Create a Prototype 'Air Plasma' Engine That Works Without Fossil Fuels
https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-have-created-a-fossil-fuel-free-jet-engine-prototype

DAN ROBITZSKI, FUTURISM
6 MAY 2020

The device compresses air and ionizes it with microwaves, generating plasma that thrusts it forward, according to research published Tuesday in the journal AIP Advances. That means planes may someday fly using just electricity and the air around them as fuel.

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And the source paper that article links to.

Jet propulsion by microwave air plasma in the atmosphere
https://aip.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1063/5.0005814

ABSTRACT We propose a prototype design of a propulsion thruster that utilizes air plasma induced by microwave ionization. Such a jet engine simply uses only air and electricity to produce high temperature and pressurized plasma for jet propulsion. We used a home-made device to measure the lifting force and jet pressure at various settings of microwave power and the air flow rate. We demonstrated that, given the same power consumption, its propulsion pressure is comparable to that of conventional airplane jet engines using fossil fuels. Therefore, such a carbonemission free thruster could potentially be used as a jet thruster in the atmosphere. 2020 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0005814

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How Tic Tacs work.

Back in April 2020 the Telegraph reported that the Pentagon released three ufo videos.  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/


Pentagon releases 'UFO' videos filmed by US Navy pilots
850,869 views•Apr 27, 2020

The Pentagon has released three declassified videos showing US Navy pilots encountering what appear to be unidentified flying objects (UFOs) “to clear up any misconceptions”.

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One of the three videos shows a ufo referred to as a Tic Tac. The Tic Tac can change its speed and direction instantaneously.
David Fravor, a Navy pilot who ‘chased’ a Tic Tac describes his experience in an interview conducted by Lex Fridman.



The Tic Tac UFO Story | David Fravor and Lex Fridman
Sep 11, 2020

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A theoretical physicist, Dr. Jack Sarfatti claims he knows how the Tic Tacs fly.



Dr. Jack Sarfatti: I Know How Tic Tacs Work, the US Does Not.
9 Mar 2020.

Sarfatti is a theoretical physicist and a world-renowned expert in quantum physics. He co-wrote the book Space-Time and Beyond. He claims to have scientific formulas making the production of these craft possible. He is certain, however, that what was seen by Navy personnel is not U.S. craft. He has a very unusual theory as to what they are.

Airman. I’d prefer to stick to Dr. Sarfatti’s physical explanation, but a brief larger view is necessary. Dr. Sarfatti wants ten minutes of the president’s tme to convince him to fund billions for his ideas. Dr. Sarfatti tells us is from Flatbush, Brooklyn New York. He describes being part of a large group of teenagers coddled and supported by the government, it seems he was enlisted by the CIA in the 70’s to aid in paranormal studies, among other things. His teachers were the engineers who built the early fission bombs. He knows all the experts. Dr. Sarfatti is certain that an autonomous Tic Tac supercomputer from the future contacted him as a young teen to learn the knowledge of Tic Tacs.
 
The physics. According to Dr. Sarfatti, what all the experts get wrong is the fact that gravitation is not a force, it’s a field. Refraction is proof that the speed of light is different in different materials. The gravitational field can be described by 8PiGn^4/c^4. Where G is the gravitational constant, c is the speed of light and n is the index of refraction. The Tic Toc is made of a meta material that forms its own gravity field when we apply the materials’ resonant frequency. By proper application of power, one can control the speed of light passing through the meta material, which also controls the Tic Tac motion through space.

I hope that’s all correct.

I do not believe that Dr. Sarfatti‘s ideas agree in any way with my understanding of the charge field. I'll stick to one item, refraction. Refraction is not proof that light travels at different speeds through different materials. The speed of light through much larger molecular structures - not necessarily including charge recycling - is always c. In The Laws of Refraction, * Miles explains that refraction is caused by a material’s emission field, dense with photons recycled through resonant molecules.
 

Miles wrote. It doesn't matter how thin it is, if it is made up of different elements, it is going to have a different charge field. All the baryons and electrons in that layer are recycling charge photons, so the charge field in that layer will have its own particular spin and direction. In this way, we see that it is not photons being absorbed by gold or silicon that causes the refraction, nor is it photons being trapped by nano-resonators. It is photons being physically deflected by other photons already present in the charge field. And since the charge field is better equipped to deflect than the matter field, our question is answered. I remind you that the classical E/M equations (by classical I mean Maxwell, here) have always contained the following important information: the charge field outweighs the matter field by 19 times. And that applies in normal situations, not just esoteric or “dark matter” situations.

P.S. I suppose I should provide some charge field based explanation for why Tic Tacs fly. My guess involves spinning, such as an internally spinning gyroscope flywheel. A rapidly spinning mass will interact, or deflect, more upward directed earth emissions, thereby reducing gravity.

Dr. Sarfatti suggested that the Tic Tac’s surface contains nano structures like Russian nested dolls. I could imaging that spinning nested molecules might interact with the earth’s emission field in the same way.

*
http://milesmathis.com/index.html

310a. The Laws of Refraction. http://milesmathis.com/rain3.pdf  A refutation of the new SEAS experiment. 4pp.

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Glad you reactivated this thread LTAM! TIC TACs areca good one to look at.

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Yep Cr6, I always liked this thread, and Tic Tacs are interesting. It would be nice to figure out, or reverse engineer in strict accordance with the charge field, how they might fly either underwater, through air or space. Unfortunately, there are many clearly charge field impossible claims such as, ‘tic tacs travel faster than light’, or latest popular buzz concepts like 'torsion fields'. For example.

Planetary Corporations, Tic Tac UFO's, Pentagon's UFO Unit


Airman. In Planetary Corporations, ... , Yes, Tic Tacs can fly faster than the light speed, using highly classified anti-gravity, torsion field type warp drive and engines. Tic Tacs belong to Planetary Corporation – the highest echelon of the U.S. Air Force. Planetary Corporation has been on the Moon since the 50’s and Mars since the 80’s. Tic Tacs are built in Mars orbit. Russia and China have their own space forces.

I apologize, that that’s too over-the-top; although, between you and me, I assume humans have been around long enough to have established off-earth economies. Not to mention non-human sentient beings. ... . Who knows?  

Here’s probably a better source containing plenty of additional information.
https://ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com

An examination of aspects of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) from a scientific perspective.

https://ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com/search?q=tic+tac

I did a site search on ‘tic tacs’ and see 7 articles to choose from. If I wasn't such a political junkie caught up in current events, I would have read them by now.
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Your coverage of Tic-Tacs got me thinking about the Strong Force and Weak Force (classical). A lot of recent new theory is developing around this. How the neutrons and "gluons" create gravitational effects. Miles provides insight into how the are represented with the Charge Field-Sun-Earth and photons. I'm going to have to look back on Miles' old papers on these forces.

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The force is strong in neutron stars

Study identifies a transition in the strong nuclear force that illuminates the structure of a neutron star’s core.

Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office
Publication Date:February 26, 2020

Most ordinary matter is held together by an invisible subatomic glue known as the strong nuclear force — one of the four fundamental forces in nature, along with gravity, electromagnetism, and the weak force. The strong nuclear force is responsible for the push and pull between protons and neutrons in an atom’s nucleus, which keeps an atom from collapsing in on itself.

In atomic nuclei, most protons and neutrons are far enough apart that physicists can accurately predict their interactions. However, these predictions are challenged when the subatomic particles are so close as to be practically on top of each other.

While such ultrashort-distance interactions are rare in most matter on Earth, they define the cores of neutron stars and other extremely dense astrophysical objects. Since scientists first began exploring nuclear physics, they have struggled to explain how the strong nuclear force plays out at such ultrashort distances.

Now physicists at MIT and elsewhere have for the first time characterized the strong nuclear force, and the interactions between protons and neutrons, at extremely short distances.

They performed an extensive data analysis on previous particle accelerator experiments, and found that as the distance between protons and neutrons becomes shorter, a surprising transition occurs in their interactions. Where at large distances, the strong nuclear force acts primarily to attract a proton to a neutron, at very short distances, the force becomes essentially indiscriminate: Interactions can occur not just to attract a proton to a neutron, but also to repel, or push apart pairs of neutrons.

“This is the first very detailed look at what happens to the strong nuclear force at very short distances,” says Or Hen, assistant professor of physicst at MIT. “This has huge implications, primarily for neutron stars and also for the understanding of nuclear systems as a whole.”

Hen and his colleagues have published their results today in the journal Nature. His co-authors include first author Axel Schmidt PhD ’16, a former graduate student and postdoc, along with graduate student Jackson Pybus, undergraduate student Adin Hrnjic and additional colleagues from MIT, the Hebrew University, Tel-Aviv University, Old Dominion University, and members of the CLAS Collaboration, a multi-institutional group of scientists involved with the CEBAF Large Accelerator Spectrometer (CLAS), a particle accelerator at Jefferson Laboratory in Newport News, Virginia.

Star drop snapshot

Ultra-short-distance interactions between protons and neutrons are rare in most atomic nuclei. Detecting them requires pummeling atoms with a huge number of extremely high-energy electrons, a fraction of which might have a chance of kicking out a pair of nucleons (protons or neutrons) moving at high momentum — an indication that the particles must be interacting at extremely short distances.

“To do these experiments, you need insanely high-current particle accelerators,” Hen says. “It’s only recently where we have the detector capability, and understand the processes well enough to do this type of work.”

https://news.mit.edu/2020/force-strong-neutron-stars-0226

What Is the Weak Force?
By Jim Lucas - Live Science Contributor December 24, 2014
https://www.livescience.com/49254-weak-force.html

This too.

https://milesmathis.forumotion.com/t503-transfer-of-atomic-mass-with-a-photon-solves-the-momentum-paradox-of-light#4214

New paper:  The Right Hand Rule http://milesmathis.com/rhrule.pdf

This too from 2013
https://www.jlab.org/news/releases/protons-weak-charge-determined-first-time

New Beam from 2018
https://www.jlab.org/news/stories/electron-ion-collider-new-frontier-nuclear-physics

Related. Old Ken Shoulders link on EVOs:
http://milesmathis.com/evo.pdf

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Hey Cr6, I'm having difficulty applying my charge field understanding of the mainstream strong and weak nuclear forces with respect to reverse engineering Tic Tacs. By the way, Tic Tacs and other sightings are part of a new UFO documentary “The Phenomenon”  released on October 6.

https://geni.us/ThePhenomenon

I don’t expect to see it, please share your thoughts if you do. The comments to the trailer (url below) indicate that the movie doesn’t really contain anything “new”.

WEIRD NEWS
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/harry-reid-ufo-coverup_n_5f83eebcc5b62f97bac4c023
10/12/2020 05:00 am ET
Harry Reid Confirms Federal Government Covered Up UFOs For Years

“There’s more than one up there,” the former Senate majority leader says in the new UFO documentary “The Phenomenon.”

https://youtu.be/l7pmDDIvfa0


“Why the federal government all these years has covered up, put brake pads on everything, stopped it, I think it’s very, very bad for our country,” Reid said in the new documentary “The Phenomenon” from director James Fox.

The official trailer
https://youtu.be/XjJomA4NDQI

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So with your Autocad prototype LTAM...are you looking to add an engine to it?
Just curious?

Also if you could apply  room temperature superconductor layers where would you put them?

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Please pardon my idle chit chat Cr6, I have no idea how a Tic Tac flies. For the record, I like thinking about the charge field on a regular basis in quiet moments throughout the day. Your comments have often struck me – in a positive Zen way, helping change my perspective for the better.

Air, containing charge, electrons, positrons, atoms, and molecules, is held aloft by the charge field. I would say that flight requires two things. First, a means to develop lift, and second, a means of forward thrust or propulsion. With conventional aircraft, propulsion is provided by the propeller spiraling forward through the air. Lift results when the aircraft intercepts a sufficient volume of upward directed earth emissions. The aircraft must move fast enough to allow proper flight controls.  

The Tic Tac can presumably hover in a stationary position then travel linearly, or in a curve, vertically up/down, or horizontally toward the horizon about 10 miles in two seconds, and then, just as quickly, to a stop. Let the long dimension of the Tic Tac align with the direction of travel. While lift can be created by increased speed, I can imagine that the skin of the Tic Tac contains controllable molecular structures able to orient and spin in any desired direction, such that - regardless of the total Tic Tac orientation - they might always point to the earth, or adjust as necessary. That might account for the ‘fact’ the Tic Tac can remain stationary.

I just don’t see any evidence of Tic Tac propulsion. How about a laser mounted internally aligned to the long Tic Tac dimension? I don’t see how such a laser could provide any forward thrust.


I was able to come up with one possible spiraling propeller idea. Imagine an Archimedes spiral or two wound around the Tic Tac’s long dimension as shown. Instead of being constructed out of proton matter, the screw threads are formed from charge streams pointed directly outward from the Tic Tac's cylinder surface. The 'screw' can be turned to advance forward or back along the Tic Tac electromagnetically, screwing itself along at the desired speed of the Tic Tac through the air. Note, I don't believe this scheme would work in the vacuum of space.

Cr6 wrote. So with your Autocad prototype LTAM...are you looking add an engine to it?
Just curious?

 
My 2 Autocad prototypes above depict variable pitch counter-rotating rotor ideas, similar to a helicopter. Note that in the real world, drones with four horizontally mounted helicopter rotors (two counter rotating pairs) seems to be taking over the world. The drone configuration is a much better solution, I don't need to consider my 'pinwheels' any further.  
 

Cr6 wrote. Also if you could apply room temperature superconductor layers where would you put them?

In a Tic Tac? I imagine I’d arrange any superconductor layers with the intent to maximize the Tic Tac’s radially outward Archimedes thread charge currents.    
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On reconsideration, I suppose a laser can provide forward thrust.


The image shows a laser device secured to the Tic Tac center. The device creates two lasers, red and blue. One can vary the output power to each which allows forward acceleration or travel to either the left or right along with decelerations. When the laser strikes the concave inner surface of the Tic Tac feels forward thrust in the laser's original direction. The forward – angular direction of the lasers can be rotated slightly to allow curved travel. The concave inner surfaces of the Tic Tacs’ long dimension ends must tolerate very large charge current flows, to be able to transfer the forward motion of each lasing photon collision to the Tic Tac’s forward motion without damaging the Tic Tac's surface molecular structure.

Does that agree with your understanding of the charge field?
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LongtimeAirman wrote:.
On reconsideration, I suppose a laser can provide forward thrust.


The image shows a laser device secured to the Tic Tac center. The device creates two lasers, red and blue. One can vary the output power to each which allows forward acceleration or travel to either the left or right along with decelerations. When the laser strikes the concave inner surface of the Tic Tac feels forward thrust in the laser's original direction. The forward – angular direction of the lasers can be rotated slightly to allow curved travel. The concave inner surfaces of the Tic Tacs’ long dimension ends must tolerate very large charge current flows, to be able to transfer the forward motion of each lasing photon collision to the Tic Tac’s forward motion without damaging the Tic Tac's surface molecular structure.

Does that agree with your understanding of the charge field?
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Hey Airman... looks like they are starting to do this. It is tiny at the moment.

Laser-Propulsion of Graphene Sails in Microgravity

TOPICS:
GrapheneNanotechnologyPopular
By SCALE NANOTECH MAY 6, 2020

Graphene Light Sail

Graphene light sail of 3mm in diameter with a mass of 0.25 mg ‘sets sail’ when pointed with a 1W laser. The prototype has a graphene micromembrane design that reduces the overall mass while keeping functional the complete area of the sail.
Credit: Dr. Santiago Jose Cartamil-Bueno

Overseas exploration and trade during the Age of Discovery (15th-17th centuries) were possible by sail technology, and deep-space exploration will require the same for the coming Age of NewSpace. This time, however, the new sails shall move with light instead of wind, for which these light sails need to be extremely large, thin, lightweight, reflective, and strong.

In a light-hearted leap for humankind, ESA-backed researchers demonstrate the laser-propulsion of graphene sails in microgravity.

Let me play among the stars

Physical exploration of deep space became a reality when NASA’s Voyager 1 left our Solar System in 2012, after a trip of 35 years and 121 AU (18,100,000,000 Km, 11,250,000,000 mi). Were Voyager 1 traveling to Alpha Centauri Cb, the exoplanet of our closest neighboring star system at 260,000 AU, humanity would have to wait dozens of millennia and hope that the shuttle kept some power to reach us then.

Sails Propelled by Three Lasers in Microgravity
Lasers of different colors propel the graphene sails in microgravity. Videos can be found in the supplementary material of the publication. Credit: SCALE Nanotech

As demonstrated first by JAXA’s mission IKAROS (2010) and recently by The Planetary Society’s LightSail 2 (2019), using light sails as propulsion system is among the most promising ideas to enable fast and affordable space trips. Not only sails do not require fuel to move, but they save its corresponding costly weight and that of its containing tanks. Unfortunately, the light radiation pressure (momentum transfer of photons) only confers relevant acceleration when the sails are sufficiently large (from few to thousands of squared meters) with a minimal mass, and currently used materials are limited when scaling up their size.

“Graphene is part of the solution,” says Dr. Santiago J. Cartamil-Bueno, SCALE Nanotech’s director and leader of GrapheneSail team. “We demonstrate a novel sail design that reduces the overall sail mass by using perforated films. By covering the holes with CVD graphene, the full area of the sail is again available for optical performance at minimal mass cost. The fabrication is relatively simple and could be easily scaled up to squared kilometers, although the in-space deployment of such a giant sail will be a serious challenge.”

Völlig losgelöst, von der Erde
With the support of ESA, the researchers gained access to the ZARM Drop Tower in Bremen (Germany), in order to test the graphene sails in space-like conditions. Here, experiments are performed in a free-fall capsule that ensures a high-quality microgravity environment (<10-6 g) for few seconds. When the sail prototypes of small sizes were weightlessly floating, they were irradiated by 1W lasers and started to move with accelerations up to 1 m/s2.

GrapheneSail Team
GrapheneSail team in ZARM Drop Tower (Bremen, Germany), from left to right: Dr. Davide Stefani, Dr. Santiago J. Cartamil-Bueno and Dr. Rocco Gaudenzi. Credit: Dr. Davide Stefani

Dr. Thorben Könemann, Dep. Scientific Director, ZARM Drop Tower Operation and Service Company, remarked: “It is always a great pleasure for us to support visionary and promising experiment concepts. The success of the GrapheneSail team underlines again the capabilities of the Bremen Drop Tower — offering not only an excellent microgravity environment for fundamental research, but also being a first stepping stone and testbed for space technology without the complexity of in-orbit operations.”

Accessing this type of facilities is not trivial, even for such a breakthrough initiative. Luckily, Dr. Astrid Orr, ESA’s Physical Sciences Coordinator at ESTEC, saw it different: “this project is a wonderful example of scientific research that can be performed with the support of ESA on a ground-based space-analogue platform — in this case microgravity — and which also has high potential for ESA’s future spaceflight and exploration programs.”

More at link:  https://scitechdaily.com/laser-propulsion-of-graphene-sails-in-microgravity/

I guess the real question is how to create photon and anti-photon lasers.

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Graphene was discovered accidentally by researchers playing with pencils and sticky tape. Its flat structure is very strong and conducts electricity and heat extremely well. Yongsheng Chen of Nankai University in Tianjin, China, and his colleagues have been investigating whether larger arrangements of carbon can retain some of these properties. Earlier this year they published details of a “graphene sponge“, a squidgy material made by fusing crumpled sheets of graphene oxide.

While cutting graphene sponge with a laser, they noticed the light propelled the material forwards. That was odd, because while lasers have been used to shove single molecules around, the sponge was a few centimetres across so should be too large to move.

The team placed pieces of graphene sponge in a vacuum and shot them with lasers of different wavelength and intensity. They were able to push sponge pieces upwards by as much as 40 centimetres. They even got the graphene to move by focusing ordinary sunlight on it with a lens.

Advertisement
But how was this movement happening? One explanation is that the material acts like a solar sail. Photons can transfer momentum to an object and propel it forwards, and in the vacuum of space this tiny effect can build up enough thrust to move a spacecraft. Just last week, the Planetary Society in Pasadena, California, launched a small solar sail to test the technology. But the forces the team saw were too large to come from photons alone.

The team also ruled out the idea that the laser vaporises some of the graphene and makes it spit out carbon atoms.

Instead, they think the graphene absorbs laser energy and builds up a charge of electrons. Eventually it can’t hold any more, and extra electrons are released, pushing the sponge in the opposite direction. Although it’s not clear why the electrons don’t fly off randomly, the team was able to confirm a current flowing away from the graphene as it was exposed to a laser, suggesting this hypothesis is correct (arxiv.org/abs/1505.04254).

Graphene sponge could be used to make a light-powered propulsion system for spacecraft that would beat solar sails. “While the propulsion force is still smaller than conventional chemical rockets, it is already several orders larger than that from light pressure,” they write.

“The best possible rocket is one that doesn’t need any fuel,” says Paulo Lozano of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He thinks a graphene-powered spacecraft is an interesting idea, but losing electrons would mean the craft builds up a positive charge that would need to be neutralised, or it could cause damage.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22630235-400-spacecraft-built-from-graphene-could-run-on-nothing-but-sunlight/

Recent findings on super-chirality lasers:
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Apr 27, 2020

Physics Optics & Photonics

New metasurface laser produces world's first super-chiral light

by Wits University

New metasurface laser produces world's first super-chiral light

An artistic impression of the metasurface laser to produce super-chiral twisted light with OAM up to 100. Credit: Wits University

Researchers have demonstrated the world's first metasurface laser that produces "super-chiral light": light with ultra-high angular momentum. The light from this laser can be used as a type of "optical spanner" to or for encoding information in optical communications.

"Because light can carry angular momentum, it means that this can be transferred to matter. The more angular momentum light carries, the more it can transfer. So you can think of light as an 'optical spanner'," Professor Andrew Forbes from the School of Physics at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg, South Africa, who led the research. "Instead of using a physical spanner to twist things (like screwing nuts), you can now shine light on the nut and it will tighten itself."

The new laser produces a new high purity "twisted light" not observed from lasers before, including the highest angular momentum reported from a laser. Simultaneously the researchers developed a nano-structured metasurface that has the largest phase gradient ever produced and allows for high power operation in a compact design. The implication is a world-first laser for producing exotic states of twisted structured light, on demand.

Nature Photonics today published online the research that was done as a collaboration between Wits and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa, Harvard University (USA), the National University of Singapore (Singapore), Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium) and CNST—Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia Via Giovanni Pascoli (Italy).

In their paper titled: High-purity orbital angular momentum states from a visible metasurface laser, the researchers demonstrate a new laser to produce any desired chiral state of light, with full control over both angular momentum (AM) components of light, the spin (polarisation) and orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light.

The laser design is made possible by the complete control offered by new nanometer-sized (1000 times smaller than the width of a human hair) metasurface—designed by the Harvard group—within the laser. The metasurface is made up of many tiny rods of nanomaterial, which alters the light as it passes through. The light passes through the metasurface many times, receiving a new twist everytime it does so.

"What makes it special is that to the light, the material has properties impossible to find in Nature, and so is called a "metamaterial"—a make-believe material. Because the structures were so small they appear only on the surface to make a metasurface."

The result is the generation of new forms of chiral light not observed from lasers until now, and complete control of light's chirality at the source, closing an open challenge.

"There is a strong drive at the moment to try and control chiral matter with twisted light, and for this to work you need light with a very high twist: super-chiral light," says Forbes. Various industries and research fields require super-chiral light to improve their processes, including the food, computer and biomedical industries.

"We can use this type of light to drive gears optically where physical mechanical systems would not work, such as in micro-fluidic systems to drive flow," says Forbes. "Using this example, the goal is to perform medicine on a chip rather than in a large lab, and is popularly called Lab-on-a-Chip. Because everything is small, light is used for the control: to move things around and sort things, such as good and bad cells. Twisted light is used to drive micro-gears to get the flow going, and to mimic centrifuges with light."

The chiral challenge

"Chirality" is a term often used in chemistry to describe compounds that are found as mirror images of one another. These compounds have a "handedness" and can be thought of as either left- or right-handed. For example, lemon and orange flavours are the same chemical compound, but only differ in their "handedness".

Light is also is chiral but has two forms: the spin (polarization) and the OAM. Spin AM is similar to planets spinning around their own axis, while OAM is similar to planets orbiting the Sun.

"Controlling light's chirality at the source is a challenging task and highly topical because of the many applications that require it, from optical control of chiral matter, to metrology, to communications," says Forbes. "Complete chiral control implies control of the full angular momentum of light, polarisation and OAM."

Because of design restrictions and implementation impediments, only a very small subset of chiral states has been produced to date. Ingenious schemes have been devised to control the helicity (the combination of spin and linear motion) of OAM beams but they too remain restricted to this symmetric set of modes. It was not possible to write down some desired chiral state of light and have a laser produce it, until now.

Metasurface laser

The laser used a metasurface to imbue light with ultra-high angular momentum, giving it an unprecedented "twist" in its phase while also controlling the polarisation. By arbitrary angular momentum control, the standard spin-orbit symmetry could be broke, for the first laser to produce full angular momentum control of light at the source.

The metasurface was built from carefully crafted nanostructures to produce the desired effect, and is the most extreme OAM structure so far fabricated, with the highest phase gradient yet reported. The nanometre resolution of the metasurface made possible a high-quality vortex with low loss and a high damage threshold, making the laser possible.

The result was a laser that could lase on OAM states of 10 and 100 simultaneously for the highest reported AM from a laser to date. In the special case that the metasurface is set to produce symmetric states, the laser then produces all prior OAM states reported from custom structured light lasers.

Going forward

"What we find particularly exciting is that our approach lends itself to many laser architectures. For instance, we could increase the gain volume and metasurface size to produce a bulk laser for high-power, or we could shrink the system down onto a chip using a monolithic metasurface design," says Forbes.

More at link:

https://phys.org/news/2020-04-metasurface-laser-world-super-chiral.html

.
Yes Cr6, I think we’ve got it. If I had one I’d be tempted to bet the farm that Tic Tacs might be as simple as a single shell of graphene being pushed around by internal lasers. If so, it might be a legitimate meteorological graphene balloon experiment, or some such explanation. In my mind making it a little less likely to be some sort of interplanetary craft, could an interplanetary craft be so simple?

I suppose there needs to be innards of some sort; components, suites of equipment – built on an internal framework including: the two, independent red and blue laser devices; the lasers’ associated aiming or steering mechanisms; plumbing and power supply. Electronics and controls, computers, communications and navigation equipment, sensors, antennas and cables, all as small as possible. Just guessing.

Chiral lasers is a fine addition to our technology and an excellent point Cr6. Single chirality lasers consisting of 100% photons or antiphotons is a power multiplier, as it delivers angular momentum equal to and in addition to the total linear momentum. I imagine a 100% chiral laser would cause the entire Tic Tac to spin about the laser’s forward direction.  

To prevent that rotation, the laser might be a 50/50 mix of photon/antiphoton, but then we lose all the photons’ angular momentum, presumably as increased heat and less smooth . To keep that power and the spin, the Tic Tac innards and framework needs to be spin tolerant. An independent rotation, and drive motors and larger power supply, … to counter the spinning Tic Tac shell adds a great deal more weight.

I like the graphene Tic Tac propelled with 100% photon or antiphoton lasers solution and count it as a win. Do you agree?
.

Absolutely LTAM....got to get it all rigged up, turned on and humming with laser like focus. Control it also with lasers on magnets. Tic Tacs with the right shell and the right laser applied is the goal now. Even creating a mini-levitation field or rails could be of use. Or just getting a drone rigged up with the tech. Of course beer  and the big game slows the best laid plans.

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-magnets-laser-pulses.html

.
Tic Tacs. I’ll try summarizing for posterity sake. I must say, your links are remarkably well placed Cr6, at the same time including cutting edges of mainstream developments.

Tic Tacs seem to be non-threatening monitoring devices with amazing flying characteristics. It seems likely the Tic Tac shell is as light and strong as possible, that must mean - graphene.

Perhaps other materials just weren't atomically rigid enough. The fact that graphene sponge can be moved by lasers seems like indisputable evidence of laser propulsion at the macro scale.

Cr6 wrote. Absolutely LTAM....got to get it all rigged up, turned on and humming with laser like focus. Control it also with lasers on magnets. Tic Tacs with the right shell and the right laser applied is the goal now. Even creating a mini-levitation field or rails could be of use. Or just getting a drone rigged up with the tech. Of course beer  and the big game slows the best laid plans.

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-magnets-laser-pulses.html

I suppose a single layer of graphene is barely visible. The ”right shell” as you call it, might need to consist of many concentric graphene layers - like the layers of an onion, giving the “right lasers” more proton matter to collide with. We require a maximum of laser photon/graphene collisions without too much Tic Tac shell mass and thickness.

As I understand it, laser propulsion (or photon propulsion) as currently defined refers to two separate and remote parts: 1. the propellant is a laser fired by one or more ground based laser stations; and 2. the object being propelled, such as a satellite being launched, or a payload attached to a large graphene sail. Getting a package into orbit with a laser costs roughly the same amount of energy as a satellite delivered into orbit by rocket fuel. The main advantage of laser propulsion is that satellites can be moved in orbit in the future, as necessary, by ground based lasers without the need for any onboard satellite propellant fuel.

Always keeping the charge field (and mainstream misconceptions) in mind, Nuclear and electromagnetic propulsion (some schemes include lasers), are possible alternatives that would require a great deal more study, beyond me at this time.

There’s a general misunderstanding about rocket propulsion I should mention - the rocket engine does not push against air or vacuum, much of the emitted ‘burning rocket fuel’ is wasted making a fiery tail. The useful part is the high velocity chemical combustion products colliding with the engine’s nozzle that actually pushes the rocket forward. I saw one or two photon propulsion discussions that have the incorrect “rocket exhaust” idea, describing forward thrust caused by emitted photons. As per the charge field, an object must be pushed with photon/object collisions.
 
Thanks for the magnetic link Cr6. I certainly need a better understanding of how magnets and lasers interact at the photon level. Ultrashort laser pulse excitation sounds interesting. I need to learn how to speak some new quantum mechanics too.

Like some people in a link or two of yours, I believe graphene sails will enable a future age of vessels sailing the solar system. Unlike them, I have the advantage of knowing about the charge field. We’ll sail outward from the solar or planetary system equator +/-30deg and return via the poles. If Tic Tacs are indeed propelled by internal lasers, then it seems likely the sailing ships of the future may also mount lasers, fore and aft, for different sails and maneuvers connected to the ship's requirements. If the lasers are upgraded with 100% chiral lasers (all photons or all antiphotons) it may make sense to replace the fixed graphene sail with a rotatable disc, connected to the space ship at the spinning disc’s spin axis – a spinning disc as a propeller. Such lasers would also make formidable weapons. Need I mention pirates?

Unless I’m mistaken, Cr6, it sounds like you want a working model of some sort, maybe as simple as mounting a laser and graphene sponge on a miniature scale rail car on rails. Turn on a laser (50/50 photon/antiphoton for now) then observe the results. Hopefully the rail car doesn’t shoot through walls. Or rig up a drone, did you have something specific in mind?

I suppose the military has already looked at this stuff?
.

LongtimeAirman wrote:.
Tic Tacs. I’ll try summarizing for posterity sake. I must say, your links are remarkably well placed Cr6, at the same time including cutting edges of mainstream developments.

Tic Tacs seem to be non-threatening monitoring devices with amazing flying characteristics. It seems likely the Tic Tac shell is as light and strong as possible, that must mean - graphene.

Perhaps other materials just weren't atomically rigid enough. The fact that graphene sponge can be moved by lasers seems like indisputable evidence of laser propulsion at the macro scale.

Cr6 wrote. Absolutely LTAM....got to get it all rigged up, turned on and humming with laser like focus. Control it also with lasers on magnets. Tic Tacs with the right shell and the right laser applied is the goal now. Even creating a mini-levitation field or rails could be of use. Or just getting a drone rigged up with the tech. Of course beer  and the big game slows the best laid plans.

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-magnets-laser-pulses.html

I suppose a single layer of graphene is barely visible. The ”right shell” as you call it, might need to consist of many concentric graphene layers - like the layers of an onion, giving the “right lasers” more proton matter to collide with. We require a maximum of laser photon/graphene collisions without too much Tic Tac shell mass and thickness.

As I understand it, laser propulsion (or photon propulsion) as currently defined refers to two separate and remote parts: 1. the propellant is a laser fired by one or more ground based laser stations; and 2. the object being propelled, such as a satellite being launched, or a payload attached to a large graphene sail. Getting a package into orbit with a laser costs roughly the same amount of energy as a satellite delivered into orbit by rocket fuel. The main advantage of laser propulsion is that satellites can be moved in orbit in the future, as necessary, by ground based lasers without the need for any onboard satellite propellant fuel.

Always keeping the charge field (and mainstream misconceptions) in mind, Nuclear and electromagnetic propulsion (some schemes include lasers), are possible alternatives that would require a great deal more study, beyond me at this time.

There’s a general misunderstanding about rocket propulsion I should mention - the rocket engine does not push against air or vacuum, much of the emitted ‘burning rocket fuel’ is wasted making a fiery tail. The useful part is the high velocity chemical combustion products colliding with the engine’s nozzle that actually pushes the rocket forward. I saw one or two photon propulsion discussions that have the incorrect “rocket exhaust” idea, describing forward thrust caused by emitted photons. As per the charge field, an object must be pushed with photon/object collisions.
 
Thanks for the magnetic link Cr6. I certainly need a better understanding of how magnets and lasers interact at the photon level. Ultrashort laser pulse excitation sounds interesting. I need to learn how to speak some new quantum mechanics too.

Like some people in a link or two of yours, I believe graphene sails will enable a future age of vessels sailing the solar system. Unlike them, I have the advantage of knowing about the charge field. We’ll sail outward from the solar or planetary system equator +/-30deg and return via the poles. If Tic Tacs are indeed propelled by internal lasers, then it seems likely the sailing ships of the future may also mount lasers, fore and aft, for different sails and maneuvers connected to the ship's requirements. If the lasers are upgraded with 100% chiral lasers (all photons or all antiphotons) it may make sense to replace the fixed graphene sail with a rotatable disc, connected to the space ship at the spinning disc’s spin axis – a spinning disc as a propeller. Such lasers would also make formidable weapons. Need I mention pirates?

Unless I’m mistaken, Cr6, it sounds like you want a working model of some sort, maybe as simple as mounting a laser and graphene sponge on a miniature scale rail car on rails. Turn on a laser (50/50 photon/antiphoton for now) then observe the results. Hopefully the rail car doesn’t shoot through walls. Or rig up a drone, did you have something specific in mind?

I suppose the military has already looked at this stuff?
.

You see it LTAM. "How to rig up 'photon propulsion'?" I do want to create a model. The military is looking at different molecular configs with graphene (plumb-nene) from what I've read. Don't know the extent of their findings. Related to your description above I found this article. Seems if diatom like graphene is created, it is much more resilient. It likely would need research to find the laser wave length-photons needed to keep the lift properties.

The research on aerogels might be a good approach especially if a surface is designed to capture photon wave-spins from a laser. They suggest helium balloons could be replaced with an aerogel structure may not be possible at this point with their approach. Actually if a gaseous type aerogel was made it could be worth a look especially if it could shape tight with the charge field for lift on edges.


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MIT creates 3D printed graphene that’s lighter than air, 10X stronger than steel

The research also disproved that 3D graphene could replace helium in balloons
By Lucas Mearian
Senior Reporter, Computerworld
JAN 9, 2017 2:03 PM PST

Melanie Gonick/MIT

MIT researchers have been able to use graphene to print 3D objects with a geometry that has 10 times the strength of steel but only a fraction of the weight.

The discovery using the strongest material there is has the potential to enable lightweight products for airplanes, cars, buildings and even filtration devices because of the printed objects' porous designs.

In its typical two-dimensional, flat state graphene is only one atom thick, so like a sheet of paper it is flimsy and easily torn. But, graphene also conducts electricity efficiently and is nearly transparent.

Until now, researchers struggled to use graphene's two-dimensional strength in three-dimensional materials.

MIT 3D graphene
Zhao Qin

This illustration shows the simulation results of tensile and compression tests on 3D graphene.
Because of the extraordinary thinness, "they are not very useful for making 3D materials that could be used in vehicles, buildings, or devices," Markus Buehler, the head of MIT's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), said in a statement. "What we've done is to realize the wish of translating these 2D materials into three-dimensional structures."

The researchers created the new graphene structures using a proprietary, multi-material 3D printer; the structures have a "sponge-like" configuration with a density of just 5%.

Combining heat and pressure, the MIT researchers were able to compress small flakes of graphene to produce a strong, stable structure "whose form resembles that of some corals and microscopic creatures called diatoms." The new shapes contained an enormous surface area in proportion to their volume, and proved to be remarkably strong.

The researchers' results were published last week in the journal Science Advances.

The research provided data about the critical densities below which the 3D graphene assembly starts to lose its mechanical advantage over most polymeric cellular materials, the researchers said.

More at link: https://www.computerworld.com/article/3155102/mit-creates-3d-printed-graphene-thats-lighter-than-air-10x-stronger-than-steel.html

https://giecdn.blob.core.windows.net/fileuploads/publications/20/issues/103389/articles/images/virgina-tech-3d-printed-graphene-octet-starwberryblossom_fmt.png

https://www.aerospacemanufacturinganddesign.com/article/3d-printing-graphene/

https://ipo.llnl.gov/technologies/chemicals-and-materials/advanced-carbon-aerogels-energy-applications



This technique might be a start (not a trivial exercise though...   ):
---------
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/23/make-your-own-aerogel/

Make Your Own Aerogel

   by: Will O'Brien

Our own [Eliot] dug this one up from the grave. While the recipe has been online for a while, do you know many 10 year olds who made their own Aerogel, that wonderful insulator that’s essentially gelled air? [William] made some(cache) for his science project in 2002. He started with Silbond H5, a combination of ethyl alcohol and ethyl polysilicate. You can get the MSDS after a painless email registration on the Silbond website. After the gel is formed you have to soak it in an alcohol bath to make sure all water has been removed from the structure. Then the gel is placed in a drying chamber. Liquid CO2 is forced into the chamber to displace all the alcohol in the chamber and the structure. Once the the alcohol is gone the supercritical drying phase begins. The temperature is raised to 90degF and the pressure is regulated to 1050psi. At this point the liquid CO2 in the gel structure takes on gas properties (looses surface tension) and leaves the silica structure. All that remains in the chamber is your new Aerogel which is 99% empty space and 1000 times less dense than glass.
---------




------------

This type of graphene-ceramic-aerogel (combined with graphene?) could maybe handle space travel? :
http://www.aerogel.org/?p=1410
============


Ceramic Aerogel Meets Stretch Goals
23 Comments

   by: Al Williams

February 27, 2019

Aerogels have changed how a lot of high tech equipment is insulated. Resembling frozen smoke, the gel is lightweight and has extremely low thermal conductivity. However there’s always a downside, traditional aerogel material is brittle. Any attempt to compress it beyond 20% of its original size will change the material. Researchers at UCLA and eight other universities around the world have found a new form of ceramic aerogel that can compress down to 5% of its original size and still recover. It is also lighter and able to withstand extreme temperature cycles compared to conventional material. The full paper is behind a paywall, but you can view the abstract.

Traditional aerogel is more likely to fracture when exposed to high temperatures or repeated temperature swings, but the new material is more robust. Made from boron nitride, the atoms have a hexagonal pattern which makes it stronger.

The new material stood up to hundreds of exposures to sudden and extreme temperature spikes ranging from -198 C to  900 C over a few seconds. In a separate test, the gel lost less than 1 percent of its mechanical strength after being stored for one week at 1,400C.

Oddly, this material reacts differently to heating. Unlike most materials, it contracts as it gets hotter. This, apparently, has something to do with its ability to withstand thermal cycles and extremes better than other aerogels.

Aerogel makes great 3D printer insulation. We don’t know exactly how to make the special boron nitride material, but it is possible to create aerogels in a reasonable home lab.
https://hackaday.com/2019/02/27/ceramic-aerogel-meets-stretch-goals/#more-346076

If something like this ever really gets rigged up... something to keep an eye on. T-cell health goes down in Space. Most human cells work with current gravity conditions on Earth apparently:

Microgravity Mimics Aging in Immune Cells

https://scitechdaily.com/microgravity-mimics-aging-immune-cells/

.

Cr6 wrote. I do want to create a model. The military is looking at different molecular configs with graphene (plumb-nene) from what I've read. Don't know the extent of their findings. Related to your description above I found this article. Seems if diatom like graphene is created, it is much more resilient. It likely would need research to find the laser wave length-photons needed to keep the lift properties.

Airman. I saw somewhere that a military contractor was trying to market a graphene media water filter, perfectly benign. What scares me about graphene and laser propulsion is a laser gun and graphene shells or graphene missiles with internal lasers. In any case, I’m sure you’re correct, the proper laser must somehow match the molecular dimensions of graphene.

You’ve added plenty of new information to the mix. Diatoms are always fun to review, especially considering how one might model 3D graphene structures based on them. A spelling error, plumb-nene, caused me some confusion. With some additional searching, I found a very short wiki page.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumbene

Plumbene

Plumbene is a material made up of a single layer of lead atoms.[1][2][3] The material is created in a process similar to that of graphene, silicene, germanene, and stanene, in which high vacuum and high temperature are used to deposit a layer of lead atoms on a substrate. High-quality thin films of plumbene have revealed two-dimensional honeycomb structures. First researched by Indian scientists, further investigations are being done around the world.

Airman. Nothing about the military, instead, a pleasant surprise. The single atomic layer of carbon known as graphene has a whole set of periodic table group 14 relatives made of Silicon, Germanium, Tin and Lead.

Another plumbene link. 
https://www.electronicspoint.com/opinion/whats-the-difference-between-plumbene-silicene-and-graphene/
What’s the Difference Between Plumbene, Silicene, and Graphene?
one year ago by Sam Holland

• Graphene is completely impervious (even for gases);
• It is super thin: 100,000 times thinner than human hair;
• It is the best conductor of heat at room temperature;
• It has a specific surface area of 2,630m²; 3 grams would cover a football field;
• It conducts heat two times better than diamond, and it is waterproof;
• It is the best known electrical conductor, over 10 times better than copper;
• It is pure carbon and occurs naturally (therefore eco-friendly);
• Its electrical mobility is 100 times faster than silicon; and
• It is optically transparent and will absorb 2.3 per cent of reflecting light.

and

Why is it a Big Deal?
Plumbene, besides being a 2D material like graphene and silicene, has had heads turning because it’s ideal as a topological insulator, and has the largest spin-orbit interaction among the three, as well as the largest bandgap. This makes Plumbene a robust 2D topological insulator in which the Quantum Spin Hall Effect might occur.

Airman. I haven’t made any sense of that last sentence. Must be fun working in the new materials world these days.

The last reference mentions that 3 million layers of graphene may add up to a single millimeter. 3D printing, with - fewer layers of graphene(?)- sounds like a possible way to build a large 3D graphene structure. We know from one of your links that graphene flakes may be heated and pressed together to make a 3D graphene sponge. Another alternative, instead of using many graphene layers, the "The mechanics and design of a lightweight three-dimensional graphene assembly" link you posted referred to filling 3D space with three periodically rotating 2D surfaces - the gyroid. That was plenty of fun. Here's another source.
 
https://plus.maths.org/content/meet-gyroid  

Within a given volume or shell, very little material is used, the curving graphene layers also need to be taken into account in order to select the proper laser.

Cr6 wrote. The research on aerogels might be a good approach especially if a surface is designed to capture photon wave-spins from a laser. They suggest helium balloons could be replaced with an aerogel structure may not be possible at this point with their approach. Actually if a gaseous type aerogel was made it could be worth a look especially if it could shape tight with the charge field for lift on edges.

Airman. I understand that that aerogels are almost as special as graphene. For example, as opposed to graphene’s amazing thermal conductance, aerogel makes the best heat insulator. Aerogel may provide a way of securing any internal Tic Tac equipment against rapid linear and angular accelerations. I was very impressed with the youtube video of NileRed’s efforts to make aerogel. I don’t quite understand how you would intend using aerogels or carbon aerogels.

I believe graphene gyroids should be able to float in air.

In response to your concern about T-cell health in microgravity, I was under the impression that one can create a perfect good gravity substitute by spinning the vessel, such as should be possible using chiral laser propulsion.

You included so much information I'm sure I missed something.

Thanks for keeping me from non-stop news reviews.
.

.
Here’s a recent development with respect to so-called sub-millimeter lasers.  

https://phys.org/news/2020-11-high-power-portable-terahertz-laser.html

NOVEMBER 2, 2020
Researchers develop a high-power, portable terahertz laser
by Michaela Jarvis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology http://web.mit.edu/

Researchers at MIT and the University of Waterloo have developed a high-power, portable version of a device called a quantum cascade laser, which can generate terahertz radiation outside of a laboratory setting. The laser could potentially be used in applications such as pinpointing skin cancer and detecting hidden explosives.

Until now, generation of terahertz radiation powerful enough to perform real-time imaging and fast spectral measurements required temperatures far below 200 Kelvin (-100 degrees Fahrenheit) or lower. These temperatures could only be achieved with bulky equipment that limited the technology's use to a laboratory setting. In a paper published in Nature Photonics, MIT Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Qing Hu and his colleagues report that their terahertz quantum cascade laser can function at temperatures of up to 250 K (-10 degrees Fahrenheit), meaning that only a compact portable cooler is required.

"Not only can we see objects through optically opaque materials, but we can also identify the substances," Hu says.

The lasers, which measure only a few millimeters in length and are thinner than a human hair, are quantum well structures with meticulously custom-engineered wells and barriers. Within the structure, electrons "cascade" down a kind of staircase, emitting a light particle, or photon, at each step.

Airman. Some additional info from wiki.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terahertz_metamaterial

A terahertz metamaterial is a class of composite metamaterials designed to interact at terahertz (THz) frequencies. The terahertz frequency range used in materials research is usually defined as 0.1 to 10 THz.[note 1]

This bandwidth is also known as the terahertz gap because it is noticeably underutilized.[note 2] This is because terahertz waves are electromagnetic waves with frequencies higher than microwaves but lower than infrared radiation and visible light. These characteristics mean that it is difficult to influence terahertz radiation with conventional electronic components and devices. Electronics technology controls the flow of electrons, and is well developed for microwaves and radio frequencies. Likewise, the terahertz gap also borders optical or photonic wavelengths; the infrared, visible, and ultraviolet ranges (or spectrums), where well developed lens technologies also exist. However, the terahertz wavelength, or frequency range, appears to be useful for security screening, medical imaging, wireless communications systems, non-destructive evaluation, and chemical identification, as well as submillimeter astronomy. Finally, as a non-ionizing radiation it does not have the risks inherent in X-ray screening.[1][2][3][4]

Airman. I have no idea how a quantum cascade laser supposedly works. I haven’t seen the related Nature article,
High-power portable terahertz laser systems, Nature Photonics (2020).
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41566-020-00707-5

Apparently the “high power” level these lasers produce is sufficient for these tiny lasers to find applications in imagery, electronics and communications. Lasers emit charge streams, it would take an awful lot of them to push a spaceship.

“Terahertz waves lie at the far end of the infrared band, just before the start of the microwave band”. That’s below the infrared, at an energy below earth’s own charge emissions. How might that effect the laser?

As is my wont, surprised I haven’t checked sooner, I decided to review some of what Miles has said on the subject.

http://milesmathis.com/updates.html

NEW PAPER, added 12/18/17, Raman Scattering and the LASER. http://milesmathis.com/raman.pdf
Where we compare mainstream light theory to mine, showing a huge mismatch.

http://milesmathis.com/raman.pdf

*Since LASER production is a form of conduction by the nucleus, you want to create a substance with the best conduction.  Normally that would be Silver, but since Silver has a large carousel level, it will want to pull some charge out equatorially.  Just as the strongest magnets are compounds, the best LASER will be composed of some compound substance, chosen to maximize through-charge in one direction.  I have shown that the strongest magnets actually rearrange the outer level of the nucleus in subtle ways, so we should seek to do a similar thing with our LASER.  In other words, we don't have to be satisfied with the existing structure of each element.  Given the right sequence of elements in compound, we can create our own nuclear structures to suit our purposes.

Airman. There’s more, enough to consider for the time being.

I don’t say it enough, thanks Miles. Thanks for revealing, in hundreds of brilliant, clear and concise papers, the fact that the physical universe is a charge field, built from real spinning photons. I’d call that a well-nigh divine revelation which greatly improves our understanding of all things. Please pardon me for being such a slow learner.
.

LongtimeAirman wrote:.
Here’s a recent development with respect to so-called sub-millimeter lasers.  

https://phys.org/news/2020-11-high-power-portable-terahertz-laser.html

...

Apparently the “high power” level these lasers produce is sufficient for these tiny lasers to find applications in imagery, electronics and communications. Lasers emit charge streams, it would take an awful lot of them to push a spaceship.

“Terahertz waves lie at the far end of the infrared band, just before the start of the microwave band”. That’s below the infrared, at an energy below earth’s own charge emissions. How might that effect the laser?

As is my wont, surprised I haven’t checked sooner, I decided to review some of what Miles has said on the subject.

http://milesmathis.com/updates.html

NEW PAPER, added 12/18/17, Raman Scattering and the LASER. http://milesmathis.com/raman.pdf
Where we compare mainstream light theory to mine, showing a huge mismatch.

http://milesmathis.com/raman.pdf

*Since LASER production is a form of conduction by the nucleus, you want to create a substance with the best conduction.  Normally that would be Silver, but since Silver has a large carousel level, it will want to pull some charge out equatorially.  Just as the strongest magnets are compounds, the best LASER will be composed of some compound substance, chosen to maximize through-charge in one direction.  I have shown that the strongest magnets actually rearrange the outer level of the nucleus in subtle ways, so we should seek to do a similar thing with our LASER.  In other words, we don't have to be satisfied with the existing structure of each element.  Given the right sequence of elements in compound, we can create our own nuclear structures to suit our purposes.

Airman. There’s more, enough to consider for the time being.

I don’t say it enough, thanks Miles. Thanks for revealing, in hundreds of brilliant, clear and concise papers, the fact that the physical universe is a charge field, built from real spinning photons. I’d call that a well-nigh divine revelation which greatly improves our understanding of all things. Please pardon me for being such a slow learner.

Thanks for the links LTAM...sorry I was busy with work recently and following the election developments. I agree this is where it is at. The right frequency laser on the right charge channeling materials to get the best lift. Ideally, the laser itself would set charge direction on the edges with the right compounds for a purely controlled lift?

Your mention of the Hall Effect in that article made think of Miles' paper on it:
Miles mentions a "second" charge field flow:
http://milesmathis.com/hall.pdf
And this one too:
http://milesmathis.com/half.pdf

This too:  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_effect
http://milesmathis.com/magnus.pdf
Makes me think if the flying-moving device can counter the Earth's charge flows in the right streams, overcome or enhance them, it could get photonic lift?

Miles Mathis wrote:The Magnus Effect, Lift, and Charge
by Miles Mathis
First published
May 16, 2018

But why I am really here today is to point out something a bit more interesting and innovative. It is admitted that “the overall behavior [of the Magnus Effect] is similar to that around an aerofoil” [Wiki].Which links us to my paper Lift on a Wing. There, I show that lift requires a rising charge field, emitted straight up by the Earth. But although the mainstream sees the analogy between lift and the Magnus Effect, it is not able to explain why the behavior is so similar. Nothing about the wing is spinning is it, and yet we can see that this must be a spin effect of some sort. Yes, a rotating cylinder at the front of a wing will add to lift, but planes fly very well without that. Why? Well, the wing doesn't need to spin if the field itself is spinning, right? Yes, the similarity between lift on a wing and the Magnus Effect is just more proof my theory of lift is correct. And it also gives us another source of lift. I didn't see in my original paper. The charge field isn't just rising at the speed of c, it is also spinning at that rate. You will say its spin isn't coherent, so that won't help us. Photons would be just as likely to be spinning CW as CCW, right?  NO! In fact, as I have shown in many previous papers, the local field here isn't balanced. Photons outnumber antiphotons about 2 to 1 in the vicinity of the Earth. That already gives us a large amount of coherence. However, it is even better than that, since the Earth also sorts photons from antiphotons. Due to the given potentials and vortices, the photons are sent to the south pole and the antiphotons are sent to the north pole. They then cycle through the Earth in defined streams, so at any given point on the Earth, there is actually a very high degree of coherence in the emitted field. This is what creates the known magnetic field at the surface of the Earth. And the faster you move through this field, the stronger it gets. This would greatly increase the lift from the rising charge field, and might even double it.

.
Cr6 wrote. I was busy with work recently and following the election developments.
Airman. No problem Cr6, I understand completely, the real world must come first.

This is a quick post to let you know I’ve been busy too. Interruptions keep preventing me from reading and considering all your recommendations.

Cr6 wrote. Ideally, the laser itself would charges edge on the right compounds for a purely controlled lift?
Airman. I want to say yes, but I can’t quite make sense of “would charges edge on”. Would you please rephrase that question?

By the way, my cabin fever is running pretty deep. I don't know what to expect next. You seem to be doing OK, I hope that’s true. Anyway, there’s evidence here at the charge field site to suggest I’ve driven others away, maybe even crazy. Don’t let that happen to you! If, at any time, I get the least bit pushy, disrespectful or delirious please do not hesitate to point it out, and slap me silly. Or whatever you like.  

Thank you Sir, your patience is greatly appreciated.
.

Yeah it is a good day when life looks mostly "sane".

I had some late night "phone" typos on that post.

Ideally, the laser itself would set charge direction on the edges with the right compounds for a purely controlled lift?

Sorry.

Here's a good recap of graphene batteries:


Graphene battery vs Lithium-ion Battery – Tech Explained

author-Anmol SachdevaAnmol Sachdeva -
Last Updated: August 20, 2019 10:59 am
 
Almost every portable electronic device today – be it our smartphones or electric vehicles come packed with the widely used lithium-ion batteries. They hold a limited charge, are quite bulky, need charging often and have a modest lifespan. That’s why, researchers have been hard at work to usher the most talked about alternative to lithium-ion batteries, i.e graphene battery.

Graphene batteries are said to be the absolute alternative to our current-gen lithium-ion batteries. Graphene batteries are itself quite lightweight, advanced and powerful. Graphene has been found to be a superior material as it not only has higher electrical and heat conductivity, but it’s also quite lightweight, flexible, and durable. Thus, graphene batteries have been under development for many years now and are expected to go mainstream in the next couple of years.

So, if you’re curious about graphene, graphene batteries and how they differ from your standard lithium-ion batteries, then you’ve landed at the right place. Here’s everything you’ll need to know about graphene batteries:

Note: This article involves the use of a lot of scientific and chemical terminology, but we have tried to simplify it as much as possible for your understanding.

What is Graphene? What are its Benefits?
Instead of diving straight into the world of graphene batteries, let me first tell you about graphene itself. I bet most of us learned in school that carbon exists in many different forms on the Earth, ranging from graphite to diamond. Well, that happens because of the varied arrangement of carbon atoms in different materials. The same is true for Graphene.

graphene structure
Graphene is a two-dimensional (2D) structure, where the atoms are laid out flat to form hexagonal carbon rings like a honeycomb. The structure is merely one atom high and is one of the most interesting discoveries of recent times, thanks to its properties. Though graphene is extremely thin, lightweight, and almost transparent, this material has come to be known as being stronger than Diamond and Steel. It’s super strong and is a great conductor of electricity too.

The flat hexagonal structure makes it simpler for electricity to flow with little resistance, offering improved electrical and heat conductivity better than the most conductive metal Copper. You don’t require any special conditions for the same as Graphene offers remarkable conductivity at room temperatures itself, thus, making it one of the perfect materials for the creation of next-generation batteries.

Graphene Batteries: How Do They Differ From Li-ion Batteries?
The internal structure of a graphene battery is quite similar to that of a standard lithium-ion battery pack. You have 2 electrodes and an electrolyte solution to enable flow of charge, but there’s a notable difference here. One of the electrodes in graphene-based batteries, mostly the cathode, is replaced with a hybrid composite material (solid-state metal + graphene) used in place of a standard solid-state metal.

While graphene batteries would prove to be way better than lithium-ion batteries really soon, researchers are now trying to improve battery performance for existing batteries using graphene. They could capitalize on this material’s conductivity and larger surface area in the anode to optimize lithium-ion batteries.

Researchers are also known to be working on hybrid materials such as Vanadium Oxide (VO2) and graphene, which could also be useful towards improved battery optimization, quick charge and discharge of the battery.

Benefits of Using a Graphene Battery
Graphene battery is a new technology, but it doesn’t mean they haven’t been tested. Manufacturers have dedicated quite some time to graphene battery research and why wouldn’t they, especially when it’s superior to the lithium-ion batteries we use right now. So, let’s take a quick look at the benefits of using a graphene battery:

Smaller, slimmer battery: We have already discussed how graphene is lightweight.  It’s when you stack 3 million layers of graphene is that you get 1 mm thickness. I mean, that should be enough to tell you that graphene batteries aren’t going to take much space in your future smartphone. It will allow manufactures to place higher capacity batteries in your phones, tablets, laptops, and more.
Higher capacity: Graphene has a higher energy density as compared to lithium-ion batteries. Where the latter is known to store up to 180 Wh per kilogram, graphene’s capable of storing up to 1,000 Wh per kilogram. So, you can have a higher capacity graphene battery pack of the same size as the lithium-ion battery.
Benefits of Using a Graphene Battery
Faster charging times: Graphene is a potent conductor of electrical energy as the honeycomb structure doesn’t offer any resistance to the flow of electrons. So, it can charge quickly, while also providing you longer battery endurance as compared to lithium-ion batteries.
Thermal management: Yeah, you may have not guessed it but graphene facilitates better heat dissipation as well. It can reduce the battery’s operating temperature by up to 5 degrees, so your phone won’t heat up while charging or playing games.
Greater Safety: Graphene batteries are expected to be a lot safer than lithium-ion batteries since the material is more flexible and stronger. This means future battery packs won’t need a ton of protective cases, taking less space and being lightweight.
To sum everything up, a graphene battery is going to make for a better choice over a lithium-ion battery in the coming years. It will be remarkably cheaper, smaller, lighter while offering greater electrical storage and faster-charging speeds.

Shortcomings of Graphene Battery
Graphene batteries have a number of benefits but the one shortcoming that’s holding its mass-adoption in our devices is mass production and the costs involved in the same.

Why is it difficult to mass-produce graphene batteries? Well, it’s because of the lack of a feasible technique for the mass-production of high-quality graphene. You certainly could produce graphene at home using graphite and sticky tape, but that doesn’t work for the mass production of the batteries. The lack of the same also drives up production cost as quality of materials will need to be taken into account, which could be as high as tens to thousands of dollars.

Currently, the graphene batteries are being developed in small numbers by a handful of manufacturers. But, others like Samsung are looking for ways to bring down the cost to make the next-gen batteries viable for use. The Korean giant is said to have figured out affordable means to produce graphene batteries and we can expect an update real soon.

Commercialization of Graphene Batteries
Graphene batteries have extraordinary potential and yield results better than the existing battery packs — something that should have become quite clear to you by now. Research in this field has been quite rampant in the past couple of decades, but we will still need to be patient for its commercialization.

Many companies are currently testing graphene batteries or are trying to improve lithium batteries with graphene to enhance their performance, but they’re not fully commercially available at the moment.

Samsung’s Graphene Research
Samsung SDI, the battery manufacturing arm of the Korean giant, is actively working in this field and has seen multiple breakthroughs over the past few years. First, we learned that Samsung had developed ‘graphene balls‘ that could make lithium-ion batteries last longer (while offering 45% increased capacity) and charge 5 times faster.

Samsung's Graphene Research
Samsung has since been silent about its graphene battery plans, except for a handful of appearances across car and electronics expos. However, there’s been rumors that a new graphene battery-backed smartphone is in the works at Samsung and it could be unveiled in 2020 or 2021. These batteries are said to fully charge in half an hour, remain operational at higher 60-degrees temperatures, but we are not aware of its capacity and composition at the moment.

Additional Research & OEMs
Apart from Samsung, there are a number of battery makers, like CellsX who’re already manufacturing and shipping graphene batteries to its partners. They have designed not only smaller battery packs for power banks (more on this below), but also made bigger batteries for model quadcopters and EVs as well. Huawei has also unveiled a graphene-enhanced Lithium-ion back in 2016 to offer longer operational time and facilitate heat dissipation.

While graphene batteries are yet to make an appearance on our phones, you could still charge them with a graphene battery-laden power bank. Yes, we have a few graphene battery power banks available in the market. Called the Apollo and Ultron, these power banks went for crowdfunding, got the number of backers they needed, and are already shipping these products. You can read all about these power banks right here.

2. ZXINF Graphene Fast Charging Power Bank
On the other hand, renowned electric car maker Tesla and India’s Log9 are showing an interest in metal-air batteries. They involve the use of a graphene rod as the cathode since it’s porous and lets air pass through. Metal-air batteries can help increase battery efficiency by up to 5 times at one-third the cost, which sounds great.

SEE ALSO: Best Graphene Power Banks You Can Buy

Graphene Batteries Could be Game Changer
Graphene batteries are definitely the next big thing because carbon is in abundance as compared to Lithium, which is a rare metal. Manufacturers have been trying to use the graphene material in about everything since its discovery in 2004. So, we can expect a number of graphene-laden products, especially graphene batteries, to come to fruition within the next couple-odd years. They will still be restricted to select smartphones but we’ll at least have a working prototype on our hands soon

More at link:  https://beebom.com/graphene-battery-vs-lithium-ion-battery/

This is a related THz discovery:
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Feb 03, 2020

Nanotechnology Nanophysics

Graphene amplifier unlocks hidden frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum

by Peter Warzynski , Loughborough University

Graphene amplifier unlocks hidden frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum

Light in the THz frequencies hits the ‘sandwich’ and is reflected with additional energy. Credit: Loughborough University

Researchers have created a unique device which will unlock the elusive terahertz wavelengths and make revolutionary new technologies possible.

Terahertz waves (THz) sit between microwaves and infrared in the light frequency spectrum, but due to their low energy, scientists have been unable to harness their potential. The conundrum is known in scientific circles as the "terahertz gap."

Being able to detect and amplify THz waves (T-rays) would open up a new era of medical, communications, satellite, cosmological and other technologies. One major application would be as a safe, non-destructive alternative to X-rays. However, until now, the wavelengths, which range between 3mm and 30μm, have proved impossible to use due to relatively weak signals from all existing sources.

A team of physicists has created a new type of optical transistor—a working THz amplifier—using graphene and a high-temperature superconductor. The physics behind the simple amplifier relies on the properties of graphene, which is transparent and is not sensitive to light and whose electrons have no mass. It is made up of two layers of graphene and a superconductor that trap the graphene massless electrons between them like a sandwich.

The device is then connected to a power source. When the THz radiation hits the graphene outer layer, the trapped particles inside attach themselves to the outgoing waves, amplifying them. Professor Fedor Kusmartsev, of Loughborough's Department of Physics, said, "As the THz light falls on the sandwich it is reflected, like a mirror."

The main point is that there will be more light reflected than fell on the device. "It works because external energy is supplied by a battery or by light that hits the surface from other, higher frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum. The THz photons are transformed by the graphene into massless electrons, which, in turn, are transformed back into reflected, energised, THz photons. Due to such a transformation, the THz photons take energy from the graphene—or from the battery—and the weak THz signals are amplified."

The breakthrough has been published in Physical Review Letters. The team is continuing to develop the device and hopes to have prototypes ready for testing soon. Prof Kusmartsev said they hope to have a working amplifier ready for commercialisation in about a year. He added that such a device would vastly improve current technology and allow scientists to reveal more about the human brain.

"The universe is full of terahertz radiation and signals, in fact, all biological organisms both absorb and emit it. I expect that with such an amplifier available, we will be able to discover many mysteries of nature, for example, how chemical reactions and biological processes are going on, or how our brain operates and how we think. The terahertz range is the last frequency of radiation to be adopted by humankind. Microwaves, infrared, visible, X-rays and other bandwidths are vital for countless scientific and technological advancements.

"It has properties which would greatly improve vast areas of science such as imaging, spectroscopy, tomography, medical diagnosis, health monitoring, environmental control and chemical and biological identification.

"The device we have developed will allow scientists and engineers to harness the illusive bandwidth and create the next generation of medical equipment, detection hardware and wireless communication technology."

More information: Optical transistor for amplification of radiation in a broadband terahertz domain, Physical Review Letters (2020). journals.aps.org/prl/accepted/ … 134b1b07c1648b392836 , arxiv.org/abs/1812.01182

Journal information: Physical Review Letters

More at link:
https://phys.org/news/2020-02-graphene-amplifier-hidden-frequencies-electromagnetic.html

Novel transmitter for terahertz waves

Date:
March 16, 2020

Source:
Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf
Summary:
Terahertz waves are becoming more important in science and technology. But generating these waves is still a challenge. A team has now developed a germanium component that generates short terahertz pulses with an advantageous property: the pulses have an extreme broadband spectrum and thus deliver many different terahertz frequencies at the same time. The development promises a broad range of applications in research and technology.
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FULL STORY
Terahertz waves are becoming ever more important in science and technology. They enable us to unravel the properties of future materials, test the quality of automotive paint and screen envelopes. But generating these waves is still a challenge. A team at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), TU Dresden and the University of Konstanz has now made significant progress. The researchers have developed a germanium component that generates short terahertz pulses with an advantageous property: the pulses have an extreme broadband spectrum and thus deliver many different terahertz frequencies at the same time. As it has been possible to manufacture the component employing methods already used in the semiconductor industry, the development promises a broad range of applications in research and technology, as the team reports in the journal Light: Science & Applications.

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Just like light, terahertz waves are categorized as electromagnetic radiation. In the spectrum, they fall right between microwaves and infrared radiation. But while microwaves and infrared radiation have long since entered our everyday lives, terahertz waves are only just beginning to be used. The reason is that experts have only been able to construct reasonably acceptable sources for terahertz waves since the beginning of the 2000s. But these transmitters are still not perfect -- they are relatively large and expensive, and the radiation they emit does not always have the desired properties.

One of the established generation methods is based on a gallium-arsenide crystal. If this semiconductor crystal is irradiated with short laser pulses, gallium arsenide charge carriers are formed. These charges are accelerated by applying voltage which enforces the generation of a terahertz wave -- basically the same mechanism as in a VHF transmitter mast where moving charges produce radio waves.

However, this method has a number of drawbacks: "It can only be operated with relatively expensive special lasers," explains HZDR physicist Dr. Harald Schneider. "With standard lasers of the type we use for fiber-optic communications, it doesn't work." Another shortcoming is that gallium-arsenide crystals only deliver relatively narrowband terahertz pulses and thus a restricted frequency range -- which significantly limits the application area.

Precious metal implants

That is why Schneider and his team are placing their bets on another material -- the semiconductor germanium. "With germanium we can use less expensive lasers known as fiber lasers," says Schneider. "Besides, germanium crystals are very transparent and thus facilitate the emission of very broadband pulses." But, so far, they have had a problem: If you irradiate pure germanium with a short laser pulse, it takes several microseconds before the electrical charge in the semiconductor disappears. Only then can the crystal absorb the next laser pulse. Today's lasers, however, can fire off their pulses at intervals of a few dozen nanoseconds -- a sequence of shots far too fast for germanium.

In order to overcome this difficulty, experts searched for a way of making the electrical charges in the germanium vanish more quickly. And they found the answer in a prominent precious metal -- gold. "We used an ion accelerator to shoot gold atoms into a germanium crystal," explains Schneider's colleague, Dr. Abhishek Singh. "The gold penetrated the crystal to a depth of 100 nanometers." The scientists then heated the crystal for several hours at 900 degrees Celsius. The heat treatment ensured the gold atoms were evenly distributed in the germanium crystal.

Success kicked in when the team illuminated the peppered germanium with ultrashort laser pulses: instead of hanging around in the crystal for several microseconds, the electrical charge carriers disappeared again in under two nanoseconds -- about thousand times faster than before. Figuratively speaking, the gold works like a trap, helping to catch and neutralize the charges. "Now the germanium crystal can be bombarded with laser pulses at a high repetition rate and still function," Singh is pleased to report.

Inexpensive manufacture possible

The new method facilitates terahertz pulses with an extremely broad bandwidth: instead of 7 terahertz using the established gallium-arsenide technique, it is now ten times greater -- 70 terahertz. "We get a broad, continuous, gapless spectrum in one fell swoop," Harald Schneider enthuses. "This means we have a really versatile source at hand that can be used for the most diverse applications." Another benefit is that, effectively, germanium components can be processed with the same technology that is used for microchips. "Unlike gallium arsenide, germanium is silicon compatible," Schneider notes. "And as the new components can be operated together with standard fiber-optic lasers, you could make the technology fairly compact and inexpensive."

This should turn gold-doped germanium into an interesting option not just for scientific applications, such as the detailed analysis of innovative two-dimensional materials such as graphene, but also for applications in medicine and environmental technology. One could imagine sensors, for instance, that trace certain gases in the atmosphere by means of their terahertz spectrum. Today's terahertz sources are still too expensive for the purpose.

More at link: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200316141549.htm

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Graphene Detector Reveals THz Light’s Polarization Using Interference of Plasma Waves

TOPICS:GrapheneMoscow Institute Of Physics And TechnologyNanotechnology
By MOSCOW INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS AND TECHNOLOGY OCTOBER 12, 2020

Phase-Sensitive Terahertz Interferometer
Artist’s rendering of a phase-sensitive terahertz interferometer. Credit: Daria Sokol/MIPT Press Office

Physicists have created a broadband detector of terahertz radiation based on graphene. The device has potential for applications in communication and next-generation information transmission systems, security, and medical equipment. The study came out in ACS Nano Letters.

The new detector relies on the interference of plasma waves. Interference as such underlies many technological applications and everyday phenomena. It determines the sound of musical instruments and causes the rainbow colors in soap bubbles, along with many other effects. The interference of electromagnetic waves is harnessed by various spectral devices used to determine the chemical composition, physical and other properties of objects — including very remote ones, such as stars and galaxies.

Plasma waves in metals and semiconductors have recently attracted much attention from researchers and engineers. Like the more familiar acoustic waves, the ones that occur in plasmas are essentially density waves, too, but they involve charge carriers: electrons and holes. Their local density variation gives rise to an electric field, which nudges other charge carriers as it propagates through the material. This is similar to how the pressure gradient of a sound wave impels the gas or liquid particles in an ever expanding region. However, plasma waves die down rapidly in conventional conductors.

That said, two-dimensional conductors enable plasma waves to propagate across relatively large distances without attenuation. It therefore becomes possible to observe their interference, yielding much information about the electronic properties of the material in question. The plasmonics of 2D materials has emerged as a highly dynamic field of condensed matter physics.

Over the past 10 years, scientists have come a long way detecting THz radiation with graphene-based-devices. Researchers have explored the mechanisms of T-wave interaction with graphene and created prototype detectors, whose characteristics are on par with those of similar devices based on other materials.

However, studies have so far not looked at the details of detector interaction with distinctly polarized T-rays. That said, devices sensitive to the waves’ polarization would be of use in many applications. The study reported in this story experimentally demonstrated how detector response depends on the polarization of incident radiation. Its authors also explained why this is the case.

Study co-author Yakov Matyushkin from the MIPT Laboratory of Nanocarbon Materials сommented: “The detector consists of a silicon wafer 4 by 4 millimeters across, and a tiny piece of graphene 2 by 5 thousandths of a millimeter in size. The graphene is connected to two flat contact pads made of gold, whose bow tie shape makes the detector sensitive to the polarization and phase of incident radiation. Besides that, the graphene layer also meets another gold contact at the top, with a nonconductive layer of aluminum oxide interlaid between them.”

In microelectronics, this structure is known as a field transistor (fig. 1), with the two side contacts usually referred to as a source and a drain. The top contact is called a gate.

Graphene Terahertz Radiation Detector
Figure 1. Inset (a) shows a top view of the device, with the sensitive region magnified in (b). The labels S, D, and TG denote the source, drain, and top gate. A side section of the detector is shown in (c). There are 1,000 nanometers (nm) in a micrometer (μm). Credit: Daria Sokol/MIPT Press Office

Terahertz radiation is a narrow band of the electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and the far infrared light. From the applications standpoint, an important feature of T-waves is that they pass through living tissue and undergo partial absorption but cause no ionization and therefore do not harm the body. This sets THz radiation apart from X-rays, for example.

Accordingly, the applications traditionally considered for T-rays are medical diagnostics and security screening. THz detectors are also used in astronomy. Another emerging application is data transmission at THz frequencies. This means the new detector could be useful in establishing the 5G and 6G next-generation communication standards.

“Terahertz radiation is directed at an experimental sample, orthogonally to its surface. This generates photovoltage in the sample, which can be picked up by external measurement devices via the detector’s gold contacts,” commented study co-author Georgy Fedorov, deputy head of the MIPT Laboratory of Nanocarbon Materials. “What’s crucial here is what the nature of the detected signal is. It can actually be different, and it varies depending on a host of external and internal parameters: sample geometry, frequency, radiation polarization and power, temperature, etc.”

Notably, the new detector relies on the kind of graphene already produced industrially. Graphene comes in two types: The material can either be mechanically exfoliated or synthesized by chemical vapor deposition. The former type has a higher quality, fewer defects and impurities, and holds the record for charge carrier mobility, which is a crucial property for semiconductors. However, it is CVD graphene that the industry can scalably manufacture already today, making it the material of choice for devices with an ambition for mass production.

Another co-author of the study, Maxim Rybin from MIPT and Prokhorov General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences is the CEO of graphene manufacturer Rusgraphene, and he had this to say about the technology: “The fact that it was CVD graphene that we observed plasma wave interference in, means such graphene-based THz detectors are fit for industrial production. As far as we know, this is the first observation of plasma wave interference in CVD graphene so far, so our research has expanded the material’s potential industrial applications.”

Plasma Wave Propagation Schematic
Figure 2. A schematic representation of plasma wave propagation in the transistor channel. Credit: Yakov Matyushkin et al./ACS Nano Letters

More at link:  https://scitechdaily.com/graphene-detector-reveals-thz-lights-polarization-using-interference-of-plasma-waves/

Researchers generate terahertz laser with laughing gas
2019
by Jennifer Chu , Massachusetts Institute of Technology

New laser opens up large, underused region of the electromagnetic spectrum
Picture of the experimental setup showing the different components of the system and highlighting the path followed by the QCL light (red) and THz radiation (blue). Credit: Arman Amirzhan, Harvard SEAS

Within the electromagnetic middle ground between microwaves and visible light lies terahertz radiation, and the promise of "T-ray vision."

Terahertz waves have frequencies higher than microwaves and lower than infrared and visible light. Where optical light is blocked by most materials, terahertz waves can pass straight through, similar to microwaves. If they were fashioned into lasers, terahertz waves might enable "T-ray vision," with the ability to see through clothing, book covers, and other thin materials. Such technology could produce crisp, higher-resolution images than microwaves, and be far safer than X-rays.

The reason we don't see T-ray machines in, for instance, airport security lines and medical imaging facilities is that producing terahertz radiation requires very large, bulky setups or devices that produce terahertz radiation at a single frequency—not very useful, given that a wide range of frequencies is required to penetrate various materials.

Now researchers from MIT, Harvard University, and the U.S. Army have built a compact device, the size of a shoebox, that produces a terahertz laser whose frequency they can tune over a wide range. The device is built from commercial, off-the-shelf parts and is designed to generate terahertz waves by spinning up the energy of molecules in nitrous oxide, or, as it's more commonly known, laughing gas.

Steven Johnson, professor of mathematics at MIT, says that in addition to T-ray vision, terahertz waves can be used as a form of wireless communication, carrying information at a higher bandwidth than radar, for instance, and doing so across distances that scientists can now tune using the group's device.

"By tuning the terahertz frequency, you can choose how far the waves can travel through air before they are absorbed, from meters to kilometers, which gives precise control over who can 'hear' your terahertz communications or 'see' your terahertz radar," Johnson says. "Much like changing the dial on your radio, the ability to easily tune a terahertz source is crucial to opening up new applications in wireless communications, radar, and spectroscopy."

Johnson and his colleagues have published their results in the journal Science. Co-authors include MIT postdoc Fan Wang, along with Paul Chevalier, Arman Armizhan, Marco Piccardo, and Federico Capasso of Harvard University, and Henry Everitt of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Aviation and Missile Center.

https://phys.org/news/2019-11-terahertz-laser-gas.html

BMW's new Wing JetPack-suit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGhtJnK9ZWA

.
Wow Cr6, I was entirely unaware of BMW's new Wing JetPack-suit – please keep any loose belongings, hands, arms and head away from the jet intakes. I believe they may generate more lift if the suits were a little more rigid. Funny, I believe I recall seeing a guy flying with a jet pack at the 1965 New York World’s Fair. Back then, we all expected to be driving flying cars by now. Youtube’s related videos show flying options that might qualify. Most seem suitable for the military or extreme sports. Extremely expensive; a license may be required. I didn't notice any new saucer shapes.

Among your recent links:
1. Graphene battery vs Lithium-ion Battery – Tech Explained
2. Graphene amplifier unlocks hidden frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum
3. Novel transmitter for terahertz waves
4. Graphene Detector Reveals THz Light’s Polarization Using Interference of Plasma Waves
5. Researchers generate terahertz laser with laughing gas

I wanted to call attention to Number 2. Graphene amplifier unlocks hidden frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum.
https://phys.org/news/2020-02-graphene-amplifier-hidden-frequencies-electromagnetic.html
by Peter Warzynski, Loughborough University
Light in the THz frequencies hits the ‘sandwich’ and is reflected with additional energy.

A team of physicists has created a new type of optical transistor—a working THz amplifier—using graphene and a high-temperature superconductor. The physics behind the simple amplifier relies on the properties of graphene, which is transparent and is not sensitive to light and whose electrons have no mass. It is made up of two layers of graphene and a superconductor that trap the graphene massless electrons between them like a sandwich

Airman. This phys org article covers an ongoing development project, amplifying THz signals. Shocking! The ‘mainstream’ explanation for how it works includes massless electrons. Ok, graphene interacts little with visible light, i.e. the graphene molecule and visible light wavelengths do not match, in the sense of our previous discussion of using a laser to propel graphene; but that does not mean graphene is not sensitive to light.  Graphene is likely “matched” to one or more photon radii outside the visible light range.

The device is then connected to a power source. When the THz radiation hits the graphene outer layer, the trapped particles inside attach themselves to the outgoing waves, amplifying them. Professor Fedor Kusmartsev, of Loughborough's Department of Physics, said, "As the THz light falls on the sandwich it is reflected, like a mirror."

Airman. Here’s a diagram from the article’s source paper Optical Transistor for an Amplification of Radiation in a Broadband THz Domain. arxiv.org/abs/1812.01182

Quote. Graphene covered with a thin film of colloidal quantum dots has strong photoelectric effect, that provides enormous gain for the photodetection (about 108 electrons per photon) [48]; graphene grown on SiC has strong photoresponse [49]; and graphene composites can improve solar cells efficiency [50].

Airman. Colloidal quantum dots and hundreds of other details in the arxiv org paper show me my well-educated conceptions of solid state mainstream science have been discarded or blanketed with what I understand is barely conceivable quantum theory. Thanks for the charge field Miles. Of course, Miles routinely points out many, many mainstream absurdities, colloidal quantum dots and massless electrons should join them.

Thinking of a possible spaceship’s propulsion, whatever the mainstream explanation may be, it seems that the graphene/superconductor sandwich may be perfectly matched to non-perpendicular THz radius energy.  

My charge field understanding of Superconductivity is not adequate. Here’s a quote from Miles’ Superconductivity Paper *.  

Miles wrote. This solves the superconductivity problem because conductivity is defined as the ability of a substance to let charge pass. Obviously, charge will pass most easily when it is blocked the least, and it is blocked the least when particles aren't getting in the way. In other words, charge photons will pass through still matter more easily than they will pass through vibrating matter. A lack of conductivity is explained by photons colliding with matter, and energetic matter will collide with more photons.

We must also remember that in normal circumstances, the field of charge photons is recycled by all matter. It is recycled via spin. Each particle is spinning, and this spin pulls in photons at the poles and spits them out at the equator. But when heat approaches absolute zero, motions slow down near a stop. When motions slow down, collisions decrease, and when collisions decrease, the spins cannot be maintained. The baryons and electrons slow their spins, and nearly stop recycling the charge field. Since the photons are not being sucked in, they are free to pass. The vortices around all particles are diminished, and the field has less resistance. The substance minimizes its collisions, and the charge field therefore maximizes its efficiency. If the charge field is carrying ions of its own, these ions will pass through the substance with minimal collision.

Here’s a superconductor quote from Miles’ Solid Light? No, just another bad interpretation of the Charge Field **

Miles wrote. In closing, I will answer one final question. Above I have said that the Meissner Effect is caused by loss of the equatorial channel, and thereby the magnetic field. But if we lose the nuclear spin, we should lose all conduction, shouldn't we? Since the spin is what caused charge to move through in the first place, loss of spin should cause not only a loss of the magnetic field, but the electrical field as well. Loss of spin should cause total loss of field potentials around the nucleus, which would negate through charge just as much as equatorial charge. If the electrical field is lost, how can we have superconduction?

Well, in a sense, we don't. Superconduction turns out to be a bit of a misnomer. Without nuclear spin, the nucleus is no longer conducting at all, rigorously. It is only continuing to provide a path, given by the nuclear structure, but the nuclear vortices are gone. The nucleus is no longer driving charge through, it is now only allowing charge through. The driving force of the conduction must be supplied by the incoming current itself. Remember, a superconductor is providing no resistance to a given charge stream or ion stream. But we have to supply the current from outside. A superconductor can't create its own current from an unstructured external field, as a normal conductor can. A superconductor can only provide a zero-resistant path for a pre-existing structured field.

Airman. In that second paper Miles also provides a superconducting ceramic molecular design: Calcium, Mercury, Barium and Copper. Oxygen (as with CuO) should also be included.

As with the graphene/superconductor sandwich, Miles superconductor might be mounted near the inner graphene layer, aimed outward toward the outer graphene layer less than a millimeter away, Miles’ superconductor charge channels would be the lasers propelling the craft. At this moment I don’t see how one might be able to move in a single direction, let alone change direction. Still, there seem to be many possibilities, fun to think about.  


http://milesmathis.com/index.html
*
122. Superconductivity, http://milesmathis.com/conduct.html explained mechanically by the charge field. 3pp.
**
296b. Solid Light? NO.  http://milesmathis.com/solidlight.pdf While analyzing the recent paper from Princeton, I explain high-temperature superconduction mechanically, including showing the physical cause of the Meissner Effect. This destroys BCS and RVB theory, Cooper pairs, polaritons, dimer math, and the rest of the fudged pseudo-explanations of solid-state physics. 30pp.
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Nice coverage and commentary LTAM. I suspect nano-materials and graphene will force a deep rebuild of QT among younger researchers at some point. Hopefully they find Miles at some point as well before they start typing it up.Here's another paper from earlier this year on TBG. It is being looked at but not really explained.

https://physics.aps.org/articles/v13/23
https://phys.org/news/2020-02-superconductivity-graphene.html

Geometry Rescues Superconductivity in Twisted Graphene

Laura Classen
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
February 24, 2020• Physics 13, 23

Three papers connect the superconducting transition temperature of a graphene-based material to the geometry of its electronic wave functions.

Figure caption
expand figure
APS/Alan Stonebraker

Figure 1: Electrons moving through the sheets of twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) have special points in their band structure where two cone-shaped bands meet. The inherent “curvature” of the states in these bands turns out to contribute to the magnitude of TBG’... Show more

On its own, a sheet of graphene is a semimetal—its electrons interact only weakly with each other. But as experimentalists discovered in 2018 [1, 2], the situation changes when two sheets of graphene are stacked together, with a slight ( ∼ 1°) rotation between them (Fig. 1). At this so-called magic twist angle [3] and at low temperatures [1], the electrons become correlated, forming insulating or superconducting phases depending on the carrier density [2–7]. These phases appear to come from a twist-induced flattening of the electronic energy bands, which narrows the electrons’ range of kinetic energies relative to their interaction energy. Researchers are actively trying to understand the twist-induced phases—for example, whether the superconductivity is ordinary or something more exotic. In a trio of papers, three independent theoretical groups contribute to this effort. They show that the value of the superconducting transition temperature in twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) is much higher than expected because of the special geometry of its electronic wave functions [8–10]. This so-called geometric contribution would persist even if TBG’s energy bands could be made perfectly flat, a condition where superconductivity would disappear in most materials.

Superconductivity describes the state of a material that has zero electrical resistance and expels magnetic fields. An important characteristic of the superconducting state is its superfluid weight—a quantity whose value can be thought of as the “strength” of the superconductivity. In a (quasi-)2D system like TBG, the superfluid weight is directly related to the superconducting transition temperature (also referred to as the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless temperature).

Makes me wonder how Miles' atomic models would show TBG? The positive-negative vortices sounds familiar with the CF.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosterlitz%E2%80%93Thouless_transition

BKT transitions can be found in several 2-D systems in condensed matter physics that are approximated by the XY model, including Josephson junction arrays and thin disordered superconducting granular films[2]. More recently, the term has been applied by the 2-D superconductor insulator transition community to the pinning of Cooper pairs in the insulating regime, due to similarities with the original vortex BKT transition.

Many systems with KT transitions involve the dissociation of bound anti-parallel vortex pairs, called vortex–antivortex pairs, into unbound vortices rather than vortex generation.[3][4] In these systems, thermal generation of vortices produces an even number of vortices of opposite sign. Bound vortex–antivortex pairs have lower energies than free vortices, but have lower entropy as well. In order to minimize free energy, {\displaystyle F=E-TS}F=E-TS, the system undergoes a transition at a critical temperature, {\displaystyle T_{c}}T_{c}. Below {\displaystyle T_{c}}T_{c}, there are only bound vortex–antivortex pairs. Above {\displaystyle T_{c}}T_{c}, there are free vortices.

Miles on Cooper Pairs:
http://milesmathis.com/conduct.html
LTAM cited earlier above.
Also on Superfluids: my newer paper on superfluids.
http://milesmathis.com/sl2.pdf

I hope you can see that we aren't in the presence of a mechanical theory here either. The Fermi surface is an abstract boundary, which means the theorists just made it up. We have no data confirming a Fermi surface, and we have no mechanical cause of the surface, so it is completely heuristic. The same can be said of Cooper pairs. Cooper proposes an arbitrarily small attraction, but provides no mechanical cause for it. It is a virtual attraction, in other words, a borrowing of attraction from the void. We see the state of the theory from this paragraph:

Although Cooper pairing is a quantum effect, the reason for the pairing can be seen from a simplified classical explanation. An electron in a metal normally behaves as a free particle. The electron is repelled from other electrons due to their negative charge, but it also attracts the positive ions that make up the rigid lattice of the metal. This attraction distorts the ion lattice, moving the ions slightly toward the electron, increasing the positive charge density of the lattice in the vicinity. This positive charge can attract other electrons. At long distances this attraction between electrons due to the displaced ions can overcome the electrons' repulsion due to their negative charge, and cause them to pair up. The rigorous quantum mechanical explanation shows that the effect is due to electron–phonon interactions.

That is not "a simplifed classical explanation," it is transparent sophistry. Here we have negative charge “increasing the positive charge density.” So we are being told that negative charge can INCREASE positive charge, which would be energy from nothing. The increased positive charge then attracts other electrons, so we have electrons attracting other electrons by this mechanism. They "pair up." Each sentence is a new miracle. Not one statement in that paragraph follows from the previous statement.

----

Online book 531 pages describing BCS-Cooper Pairs

Multivalued Fields in Condensed Matter, Electromagnetism, and Gravitation
World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore
pp. 1-450, 2007
http://www.physik.fu-berlin.de/~kleinert/public_html/kleiner_reb11/psfiles/mvf.pdf

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Cr6 wrote. Here's another paper from earlier this year on TBG. It is being looked at but not really explained.

https://physics.aps.org/articles/v13/23
https://phys.org/news/2020-02-superconductivity-graphene.html

Geometry Rescues Superconductivity in Twisted Graphene

Laura Classen
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
February 24, 2020• Physics 13, 23

Three papers connect the superconducting transition temperature of a graphene-based material to the geometry of its electronic wave functions.

Airman. It seems you’re trying to help me learn something Cr6, thanks. I’ll try coming up with a charge field TBG superconductivity rationale, please feel free to point out errors or omissions.

In my last post I imagined that we would want the spacecraft shell’s forward direction outermost graphene layer to collide with as much of each superconductor charge stream as possible. But if this is an interplanetary craft, traveling through the relative charge vacuum of space, with the drive shut off, the surface of the craft may get very cold. We may not be able to avoid superconductivity.

Here’s the article image and repeating the introductory paragraph.

On its own, a sheet of graphene is a semimetal—its electrons interact only weakly with each other. But as experimentalists discovered in 2018 [1, 2], the situation changes when two sheets of graphene are stacked together, with a slight ( ∼ 1°) rotation between them (Fig. 1). At this so-called magic twist angle [3] and at low temperatures [1], the electrons become correlated, forming insulating or superconducting phases depending on the carrier density [2–7]. These phases appear to come from a twist-induced flattening of the electronic energy bands, which narrows the electrons’ range of kinetic energies relative to their interaction energy. Researchers are actively trying to understand the twist-induced phases—for example, whether the superconductivity is ordinary or something more exotic. In a trio of papers, three independent theoretical groups contribute to this effort. They show that the value of the superconducting transition temperature in twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) is much higher than expected because of the special geometry of its electronic wave functions [8–10]. This so-called geometric contribution would persist even if TBG’s energy bands could be made perfectly flat, a condition where superconductivity would disappear in most materials.

Airman. There’s plenty of text description in the article that I haven’t made any sense of, i.e. the super fluid weight, used to measure the strength of the superconductor. But first, where’s the electron current? I don’t know the charge current direction; along the two graphene parallel surfaces or orthogonally through them? Looking for clues, (including brief reviews of other TBG links) starting at the blue and red cones, and considering the possible meaning of correlated electrons forming insulating or superconducting phase alternatives depending on carrier density. I’ll assume the current flow is vertical, the up/down direction indicated by the image’s red and blue cones above. If so, downward directed electrons will pass first through the top graphene layer then the bottom, or not, depending on whether the superconducting TBG is in its insulating or conducting phase.

I tried diagramming Twisted Bilayer Graphene – as I understand it - below. The two graphene layers are parallel to the image’s surface. Current is directly into or out of the image. The first image shows a twist angle of 2 degrees. The second image has a 1.1 degree twist - the desired magic number according to one link I noticed.




For current directly into or out of the graphene, twisting one of the two layers results in a distinct and repetitive pattern I call an interference pattern. The interference being the atoms where charge current collisions will occur. During superconduction, the graphene doesn’t produce large atomic vortices, although the protons themselves will still have theirs. The circles representing the atoms may better thought of as the size of that carbon’s atomic vortices(?)

Unfortunately, pixelating large numbers of tiny spheres at varying positions causes pixel artifacts which make the image somewhat less clear, we can still see how well the carbon atoms of the two overlapped (superimposed) graphene layers line up or not. The carbon atoms at the center of both images are maximally aligned, current flowing in or out of that central area will encounter the least amount of particle resistance, half as much compared to the areas where the red and blue carbon atoms are completely out alignment. We can see other aligning areas - the 60 degree repetitive interference pattern for the 2deg twist. Note that the central open area at the 1.1deg twist appears twice as large (radially) compared to the central area with the 2deg twist.

My current charge field guess is, the TBG can sustain its superconductivity despite a few collisions. Slightly increasing the quantity of electrons may greatly increase the number of collisions, or expand the electron beam width to just outside the central open area, with resulting in a greatly increased number of collisions, causing current to flow along the graphene layers, causing the TBG to act as an insulator.

I can't wait to look at that book you linked to Cr6, Thanks.  
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Hey LTAM,
No problem. Came across this as well. Combining this with moire TBG might be cool.


Spider silk: a new superconductor

Posted by Science Illustrated on March 7, 2012 in Animals, Biology, Nature, News, Science, Technology

Spider silk is only four microns thick; a human hair, for example, is about 60 microns thick.

This super strong, stretchy fibre is capable of much more than just catching flies.

Nature’s toughest fibre has the potential to make bulletproof vests, artificial tendons, and can even be engineered to come out of goat milk. Now it has been proven to be able to conduct heat as well as — and even more effectively than — most metals.

Xinwei Wang, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Iowa State University, US, had been looking for organic materials that can effectively transfer heat. Based on a hunch, Wang bought eight golden silk orbweaver spiders and kept them in the university’s greenhouse. He then left them to start spinning webs in order to test the fibre’s thermal conductivity.

Spider silk is incredibly strong, stretchy and only four microns thick. Although it had been speculated that the silk could be a good conductor of heat, nobody had ever tested its effectiveness.

Wang and his research team found that spider silk could conduct heat better than most materials, including silicon, aluminium and iron. For an organic material, this is the highest ever. There are only a few materials higher — silver and diamond.

“I think we tried the right material,” Wang said of the results. “Our discoveries will revolutionise the conventional thought on the low thermal conductivity of biological materials.”

The results also showed that when spider silk is stretched, thermal conductivity also goes up: usually materials lose thermal conductivity when they’re stretched. Wang stretched spider silk to its 20 per cent limit and observed an increase in conductivity of another 20 per cent.

https://scienceillustrated.com.au/blog/nature/spider-silk-a-new-superconductor/

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Cr6 wrote. No problem. Came across this as well. Combining this with moire TBG might be cool.
Airman. Moire TBG eh? First I’ve heard of that. Yep, doing a search for Moire patterns shows many examples, including an image from physOrg that’s very similar to my “TBG” diagrams.

I must say, individual images don’t do it justice. This subject would be better viewed with 2 transparent hexagonal array images.

Seeing Moire in Graphene
https://phys.org/news/2010-04-moire-graphene.html

The (expanded) illustration and description, intro and second paragraphs follow.

Moiré patterns appear when two or more periodic grids are overlaid slightly askew, which creates a new larger periodic pattern. Researchers from NIST and Georgia Tech imaged and interpreted the moiré patterns created by overlaid sheets of graphene to determine how the lattices of the individual sheets were stacked in relation to one another and to find subtle strains in the regions of bulges or wrinkles in the sheets. Credit: NIST

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Georgia Institute of Technology have demonstrated that atomic scale moiré patterns, an interference pattern that appears when two or more grids are overlaid slightly askew, can be used to measure how sheets of graphene are stacked and reveal areas of strain.

The ability to determine the rotational orientation of graphene sheets and map strain is useful for understanding the electronic and transport properties of multiple layers of graphene, a one-atom thick form of carbon with potentially revolutionary semiconducting properties.

Airman. Ok, using graphene, one may observe moire pattern variations that can reveal strains in another graphene layer. While this particular article mentions “graphene’s potentially revolutionary semiconducting properties”, it does not address or attempt to explain superconducting TBG. A separate search of ‘moire TBG’ shows plenty of hits, the top ones are behind paywalls.

Using autocad again, I measure the physOrg twist at 5 degrees. Here’s the 5 degree twist using the same molecular scale as my previous 1.1 and 2degree twist diagrams.

That's the clearest yet. One can better appreciate how a small rotational change between layers result in distinct scale and rotation variations in the moire pattern. Once again, note that the maximally aligned “central opening” for the 5degree twist is less than half the radial size as the central opening for the 2degrees twist which was half the radial size of the 1.1degree twist’s central opening.

The central area provides the lowest number of electron carbon atom collisions, outside that area, the chance of collisions doubles, causing increased charge and current flow along the graphene, which I believe prevents the superconductor from operating as a conductor. We must tune the perfect superconducting TBG magic angle according to the electron (and photon) beam width. If the atomically aligned central area was too small for a given electron beam, the graphene would probably not exhibit any superconducting properties. If the central aligned area was too large, electron current changes will not change the rate of electron/carbon collisions which would probably prevent the reported insulating/conducting phase change.

Here's a related article that seems to confirm my presumed charge field viewpoint. My emphasis(bold) added.

https://phys.org/news/2020-11-abnormal-angle-bilayer-graphene.html
NOVEMBER 30, 2020 FEATURE
Abnormal conductivity in low angle twisted bilayer graphene
by Thamarasee Jeewandara , Phys.org

Materials scientists can control the interlayer twist angle of materials to offer a powerful method to tune electronic properties of two-dimensional (2-D) van der Waals materials. In such materials, the electrical conductivity will increase monotonically (constantly) with the decreasing twist angle due to enhanced coupling between adjacent layers. In a new report, Shuai Zhang and a team of scientists in functional materials, engineering, nanosystems and tribology, in China, described a setup for non-monotonic angle-dependent vertical conductivity across the interface of bilayer graphene containing low twist angles. The vertical conductivity enhanced gradually with the decreasing twist angle, however, after further decrease in the twist angle, the conductivity of the material notably dropped.

Airman. Superconducting spider-silk sounds simply wonderful Cr6.
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Thanks for the graphics LTAM really helps to see the patterns!  

Btw...looks like the can feed graphene to spiders for biosilks:  https://newatlas.com/bionic-spider-silk-graphene/50908/

Looks like it can be made  artificially as well. Looks like it is tricky to mass produce though:

....

Now, researchers at the University of Cambridge have created a new material that mimics spider silk’s strength, stretchiness and energy-absorbing capacity. This material offers the possibility of improving on products from bike helmets to parachutes to bulletproof jackets to airplane wings. Perhaps its most impressive property? It’s 98 percent water.

“Spiders are interesting models because they are able to produce these superb silk fibers at room temperature using water as a solvent,” says Darshil Shah, an engineer at Cambridge’s Centre for Natural Material Innovation. “This process spiders have evolved over hundreds of millions of years, but we have been unable to copy so far.”

The lab-made fibers are created from a material called a hydrogel, which is 98 percent water and 2 percent silica and cellulose, the latter two held together by cucurbiturils, molecules that serve as “handcuffs.” The silica and cellulose fibers can be pulled from the hydrogel. After 30 seconds or so, the water evaporates, leaving behind only the strong, stretchy thread.

The fibers are extremely strong – though not quite as strong as the strongest spider silks – and, significantly, they can be made at room temperature without chemical solvents. This means that if they can be produced at scale, they have an advantage over other synthetic fibers such as nylon, which require extremely high temperatures for spinning, making textile production one of the world’s dirtiest industries. The artificial spider silk is also completely biodegradable. And since it’s made from common, easily accessible materials – mainly water, silica and cellulose – it has the potential to be affordable.

Because the material can absorb so much energy, it could potentially be used as a protective fabric.

“Spiders need that absorption capacity because when a bird or a fly hits their web, it needs to be able to absorb that, otherwise it’s going to break,” Shah says. “So things like shrapnel resistant or other protective military clothing, that would be an exciting application.”

Other potential applications include sail cloth, parachute fabric, hot air balloon material, and bike or skateboard helmets. The material is biocompatible, which means it could be used inside the human body for things like stitches.  

The fibers could also be modified in a number of interesting ways, Shah says. Replacing the cellulose with various polymers could turn the silk into an entirely different material. The basic method could be replicated to produce low-heat, no-chemical-solvents-needed versions of many fabrics.

“It’s a generic method to make all fibers, to make any form of [artificial] fiber green,” Shah says.

Shah and his team are far from the only scientists to work on creating artificial spider silk. Unlike silkworms, which can be farmed for their silk, spiders are cannibals who wouldn’t tolerate the close quarters necessary for farming, so turning to the lab is the only way to get significant quantities of the material. Every few years brings headlines about new inroads in the process. A German team has modified E-coli bacteria to produce spider silk molecules. Scientists at Utah State University bred genetically modified “spider goats” to produce silk proteins in their milk. The US army is testing “dragon silk” produced via modified silkworms for use in bulletproof vests. Earlier this year, researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden published a paper on a new method for using bacteria to produce spider silk proteins in a potentially sustainable, scalable way. And this spring, California-based startup Bolt Threads debuted bioengineered spider silk neckties at the SXSW festival. Their product is made through a yeast fermentation process that produces silk proteins, which then go through an extrusion process to become fibers. It’s promising enough to have generated a partnership with outdoor manufacturer Patagonia.

More at link: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/new-artificial-spider-silk-stronger-steel-and-98-percent-water-180964176/

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Last time, I tried explaining TBG superconductivity according to my rudimentary understanding of the charge field and geometry. Given a low temperature and vertical electron current, atomically aligned carbon atoms provide the least amount of electron/carbon atom collisions. Around that central area collisions double, increasing atomic charge pole to equatorial recycling and causing currents along the graphene layers, thereby adding photon emissions resistance to a vertical electron current.

I linked and quoted from the article, Abnormal conductivity in low angle twisted bilayer graphene which seemed to agree with my thinking. I soon realized that that article pertains to TBG conductivity and not TBG superconductivity. Here’s a screen capture of the title and most of the first image.
 

Airman. The left side of the image shows the experimental set-up. A moveable Tip includes a fixed graphene layer used to map a graphene film surface containing areas of various twist angles. While maintaining a bias (a rampable voltage difference) between the Tip and surface graphene layers, the set-up also measures the resulting current.
I believe the large radial size of the Tip’s graphene layer greatly effects the experimental results. The Tip’s graphene is on a substrate which can only increase charge flow. The ‘vertical current’ is aligned with and therefore includes the earth’s emission field. The ‘electron beam width’ I mentioned previously would constitute the entire Tip’s black energized hexagon. It may be true that this set-up could measure superconductivity – and as long as the maximally aligned carbon atoms’ central area was tuned to the Tip’s graphene hexagon.

QUOTE With the decreasing twist angle, the scientists noted a drop in vertical conductivity of twisted bilayer graphene, a distinctly different feature from the monotonic angle dependent conductivity observed in previous investigations. UNQUOTE.

Airman. My bold. Of course I don’t know or understand the current mainstream explanations, involving phonons:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonon

Phonon. In physics, a phonon is a collective excitation in a periodic, elastic arrangement of atoms or molecules in condensed matter, specifically in solids and some liquids. Often designated a quasiparticle, it is an excited state in the quantum mechanical quantization of the modes of vibrations for elastic structures of interacting particles.

Airman. Huh? Sounds like those time and space warps which turn planets in their orbits. Nor do I understand van der Walls material properties involving planar forces and electronic waves(?). I read a little about Conductive Atomic Force Microscopy (c-AFM), https://www.nrel.gov/materials-science/conductive-atomic.html
so I might have the basic idea how these investigations were conducted. This experiment investigates the conductivity (not superconductivity) of TBG at different twist angles.

“With the decreasing twist angle, “ given simple TBG conductivity, the central atomically aligned areas grow larger. At some point, the central area exceeds the size of the Tip’s graphene layer and the two graphene layers begin to conduct (vertically) as though the two layers were aligned. The bold part at the end of that last quote links to a citation and abstract of Understanding Interlayer Contact Conductance in Twisted Bilayer Graphene. smll.201902844
The Full Paper is behind a paywall. The abstract states (among other things) that zero degree (aligned) TBG layers conduct four times as much (current) as 30 degree TBG. That gives me an excuse to share a 30 deg TBG moire image.  


I’m sure I’m learning something, but I don’t know if I’m making any charge field progress or not. I’ll give it some more thought.

Sorry, Cr6, I just noticed stepped on your last post, adding to your superconducting spider silk post. Thanks for the discussion.
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Was looking at this TTG article as well. The graphics are worth a review as well.

Twisted Trilayer Graphene: A Precisely Tunable Platform for Correlated Electrons


ABSTRACT

We introduce twisted trilayer graphene (tTLG) with two independent twist angles as an ideal system for the precise tuning of the electronic interlayer coupling to maximize the effect of correlated behaviors. As established by experiment and theory in the related twisted bilayer graphene system, van Hove singularities (VHS) in the density of states can be used as a proxy of the tendency for correlated behaviors. To explore the evolution of VHS in the twist-angle phase space of tTLG, we present a general low-energy electronic structure model for any pair of twist angles. We show that the basis of the model has infinite dimensions even at a finite energy cutoff and that no Brillouin zone exists even in the continuum limit. Using this model, we demonstrate that the tTLG system exhibits a wide range of magic angles at which VHS merge and that the density of states has a sharp peak at the charge-neutrality point through two distinct mechanisms: the incommensurate perturbation of twisted bilayer graphene’s flatbands or the equal hybridization between two bilayer moiré superlattices.

Figure Figure Figure Figure
Received 30 May 2020Accepted 29 July 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.116404

2020 American Physical Society
Ziyan Zhu, Stephen Carr, Daniel Massatt, Mitchell Luskin, and Efthimios Kaxiras
Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 116404 – Published 11 September 2020

https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.116404

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Cr6 wrote. Was looking at this TTG article as well. The graphics are worth a review as well.

Twisted Trilayer Graphene: A Precisely Tunable Platform for Correlated Electrons

Quoting the Abstract. We introduce twisted trilayer graphene (tTLG) with two independent twist angles as an ideal system for the precise tuning of the electronic interlayer coupling to maximize the effect of correlated behaviors. ... 

Airman. Three graphene layers, of course, why not? Woah, another paywall. Only the abstract and four small figures are available for review at that link. After a quick search I found the full paper at,
https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.00399
Attached to the end of that paper is what amounts to another paper by the same authors, Supplemental Material for “Twisted Trilayer Graphene: a Precisely Tunable Platform for Correlated Electrons”. Real or reciprocal space?
I’m not sure I want to make sense of it.

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Graphene is an amazing thing. Adding twisted layers of it is even more interesting. This paper from June 2013 is a good place to start.
https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/83814
Studies of bilayer and trilayer graphene

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Did you know that spiders have seven types of silk glands?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xossR6eHv3I

Cheryl Hayashi: The magnificence of spider silk

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Twisted trilayer graphene (tTLG). Moiré of moiré. One thing they are trying to do is maximize electron correlations, whatever that means. In the mainstream, atomic bonding theories are usually based on electrons somewhere between atomic nuclei. I suppose correlated electrons might pertain to the ‘wave behavior’ of bonding electrons across the two layers; but that’s all wrong. Given the charge field, photons create the current flows which push the electrons along. Electrons, and larger particles recycle charge photons. The carbon atoms (created mainly from protons) making up the graphene, are the dominant charge recycling particles present. The vertical current through the layers as well as the earth’s emissions create the graphene layers’ ambient charge field. I have no idea why they feel three tuned graphene layers would make an ‘ideal system’.

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Back to Twisted Bilayer Graphene. A TBG moiré shows two slightly askew layers of carbon atom grids. As before, I’m fairly certain, in order to maximize a vertical charge current (with plenty of electrons) of a certain beam width, the charge beam should be directed at the twisted TBG atomically aligned ‘central’ area. The size of the open area should be tuned to the beam width. The transition from aligned to out of alignment carbon atoms demand a closer look.


The first image shows the bottom right quadrant, now twice my previous scale, of a 1.5 degree TBG image. The center of rotation in the open central area is near the top left, another open area is near the bottom right.


This second image, another scale doubling, the TBG is again twice as close to the viewer, shows the top left corner of the first image.

Let the carbon atoms be at relatively low temperatures. Within the atomically aligned central area (more than a quarter of which is shown near the top left corner of both images) the red carbon atoms are almost completely shielded by the blue carbon atoms almost directly above them, the only downward electron/carbon atom collisions will occur at blue carbon atoms. Outside that central area, (and within the beam-width of the vertical electron current), the red carbon atoms are increasingly exposed, the total number of collisions increase. In the next outward radial zone, (still within the vertical electron current?) the carbon atoms no longer overlap. They appear as side by side pairs (ignoring the depth difference) at equal radial distances from the center of the aligned central area. At this radius from the center the electron/carbon atom collision rate is doubled, and the collisions generally occur along concentric rings about the central aligned area. I wonder what the beam width radius should be, since I believe there’s a good chance those increased peripheral collisions and increased atomic recycling may add constructively or destructively to the vertical current.

When energy levels increase, all electrons, protons and carbon atoms’ charge emissions will increase. With respect to a vertical electron current interacting with the TBG there are plenty of unexpected results. Electron/charge emission collisions would begin to greatly outnumber and prevent most all direct electron/carbon atom collisions, with very interesting voltage current properties.

Do we have a picture of graphene using Miles' atomic models?
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