Nanophysics news

Nanoparticles go platinum: NCEM instruments provide key images

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

4 hours ago | 5 / 5 (2) | 0

At Berkeley Lab's National Center for Electron Microscopy it was revealed that single-stranded DNA can disperse bundles of single-walled carbon nanotubes into individual tubes and serve as guideposts for synthesizing ...

Hot Electrons Could Double Solar Cell Power Efficiency

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

Dec 18, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (12) | 2

Scientists have experimentally verified a theory suggesting that hot electrons could double the output of solar cells. The researchers, from Boston College, have built solar cells that successfully use hot ...

Light-Driven Nanorod Could Roll on Water

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

Dec 18, 2009 | 4 / 5 (9) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- In a recent study, researchers have examined the possibility of rolling a nanorod on the surface of water. On the macroscale, perhaps the closest analogy might be the sport of logrolling, ...

New techniques make carbon-based integrated circuits more practical

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

Dec 09, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (13) | 4

(PhysOrg.com) -- Stanford engineers have built what they believe is a chip with the most advanced computing and storage elements made of carbon nanotubes to date by devising a way to root out the stubborn ...

New silicon-germanium nanowires could lead to smaller, more powerful electronic devices

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

Dec 09, 2009 | 5 / 5 (5) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Microchip manufacturers have long faced challenges miniaturizing transistors, the key active components in nearly every modern electronic device, which are used to amplify or switch electronic signals.

Scientists build 'single-atom transistor'

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

Dec 06, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (35) | 3

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers from Helsinki University of Technology (Finland), University of New South Wales (Australia), and University of Melbourne (Australia) have succeeded in building a working transistor, ...

Scientists Create World's Smallest Snowman (w/ Video)

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

Dec 04, 2009 | 3.5 / 5 (20) | 5

(PhysOrg.com) -- David Cox, a scientist in the Quantum Detection group at the National Physical Laboratory in the UK, is an expert in nanofabrication techniques. Recently, using the tools of his trade and ...

Loves Me, Loves Me Not: Researchers Discover New Method for Measuring Hydrophobicity at the Nanoscale

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

Dec 03, 2009 | not rated yet | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have discovered a new, more precise method for measuring how much — or how little - nanoscale interfaces love water.

Researchers put a new spin on atomic musical chairs

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

Dec 02, 2009 | 5 / 5 (4) | 0

Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Naval Research Laboratory have developed a new way to introduce magnetic impurities in a semiconductor crystal by prodding it with ...

Researchers Design Triple Quantum Dot for Quantum Information Applications

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

Nov 30, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (18) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- While quantum dots have existed since the 1980s, only in the past decade have physicists successfully created lateral few-electron single quantum dots. These quantum dots enable physicists ...

Nanowires key to future transistors, electronics

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

Nov 26, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (12) | 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new generation of ultrasmall transistors and more powerful computer chips using tiny structures called semiconducting nanowires are closer to reality after a key discovery by researchers ...

Using superconducting probes to get a picture of what it's like inside CNTs

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

Nov 20, 2009 | 4.4 / 5 (9) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- "Carbon nanotubes are exciting for fundamental physics, and for potential technological applications," Nadya Mason tells PhysOrg.com. "However, we are generally limited in the way that we can study them. ...

Highlight: Damping of acoustic vibrations in gold nanoparticles

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

Nov 19, 2009 | 4 / 5 (2) | 0

Vibrations in nanostructures offer applications in molecular-scale biological sensing and ultrasensitive mass detection. To approach single-atom sensing, it is necessary to reduce the dimensions of the structures ...

Small optical force can budge nanoscale objects

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

Nov 17, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (14) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Engineering researchers have used a very tiny beam of light with as little as 1 milliwatt of power to move a silicon structure up to 12 nanometers.

Researchers turn algae into high-temperature hydrogen source

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

Nov 12, 2009 | 3.6 / 5 (7) | 5

In the quest to make hydrogen as a clean alternative fuel source, researchers have been stymied about how to create usable hydrogen that is clean and sustainable without relying on an intensive, high-energy ...

In touch with molecules

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

Nov 12, 2009 | 5 / 5 (2) | 1

The performance of modern electronics increases steadily on a fast pace thanks to the ongoing miniaturization of the utilized components. However, se-vere problems arise due to quantum-mechanical phenomena ...

New nano color sorters from Molecular Foundry

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

Nov 12, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (4) | 0

Berkeley Lab researchers have engineered a new class of bowtie-shaped devices that capture, filter and steer light at the nanoscale. These "nano-colorsorter" devices act as antennae to focus and sort light ...

New nanocrystalline diamond probes overcome wear

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

Nov 10, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (3) | 0

Researchers at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University have developed, characterized, and modeled a new kind of probe used in atomic force microscopy (AFM), which images, measures, ...