Condensed Matter news

By tracking water molecules, physicists hope to unlock secrets of life

Physics / Condensed Matter

Feb 08, 2010 | 4.6 / 5 (8) | 3 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- Compared to any other liquid on Earth, water behaves in strange and unexpected ways, yet its unusual properties enable and protect life as we know it. By tracking individual water molecules in a "supercooled" ...

Freezing point of supercooled water varies with electric charge

Physics / Condensed Matter

Feb 08, 2010 | 4.9 / 5 (9) | 2 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- Just as water can be superheated and remain liquid above the boiling point if there is no nucleating surface (such as a surface defect or a speck of dust), it can also become supercooled and ...

Organic Layers Pave Way for Next Generation of Biosensors and Solar Cells

Physics / Condensed Matter

Feb 03, 2010 | 4.8 / 5 (8) | 1 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- UT Dallas researchers have laid the groundwork for attaching virtually any organic molecule to silicon, a technological feat that promises to greatly improve semiconductor devices’ performance ...

Mismatched alloys are a good match for thermoelectics

Physics / Condensed Matter

Jan 26, 2010 | 4.8 / 5 (5) | 1 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- Using the supercomputers at NERSC, Berkeley Lab researchers demonstrated that the semiconductors known as highly mismatched alloys (HMAs) hold great promise for the future development of high ...

Surprising discovery: X-rays drive formation of new crystals

Physics / Condensed Matter

Jan 25, 2010 | 4.7 / 5 (18) | 4 |

detect broken bones, tumors and dental cavities, analyze atoms in diverse materials and screen luggage at airports -- but who knew they could cause crystals to form?

Water still has a few secrets to tell

Physics / Condensed Matter

Jan 21, 2010 | 3.7 / 5 (22) | 14 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- We are used to thinking of water as a substance with relatively few secrets left. Its basic structure has been studied by high school students for decades, and water is considered essential ...

Watching crystals grow provides clues to making smoother, defect-free thin films

Physics / Condensed Matter

Jan 21, 2010 | 4.7 / 5 (3) | 1 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- To make thin films for semiconductors in electronic devices, layers of atoms must be grown in neat, crystalline sheets. But while some materials grow smooth crystals, others tend to develop ...

Scientists squeeze more out of metal-organic framework

Physics / Condensed Matter

Jan 12, 2010 | 4.5 / 5 (2) | 0 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have discovered a new route to transform the structure of porous materials at industrially-accessible high pressures.

New materials designed to deal with hypersonic and supersonic hot stuff (w/ Video)

Physics / Condensed Matter

Dec 24, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (24) | 9

University of Queensland researchers are testing new materials to withstand the extreme heat experienced by hypersonic vehicles in flight so they can fly for substantially longer.

Next generation lens promises more control

Physics / Condensed Matter

Dec 20, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (24) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Duke University engineers have created a new generation of lens that could greatly improve the capabilities of telecommunications or radar systems to provide a wide field of view and greater ...

Rare earth metal enhances phosphate glass

Physics / Condensed Matter

Dec 15, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (2) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Adding cerium oxide to phosphate glass rather than the commonly used silicate glass may make glasses that block ultraviolet light and have increased radiation damage resistance while remaining colorless, ...

Light-generating transistors to power labs on chips

Physics / Condensed Matter

Dec 11, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (10) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- What started out as 'blue-sky' thinking by a group of European researchers could ultimately lead to the commercial mass production of a new generation of optoelectronic components for devices ...

Absorbing Hydrogen Fluoride Gas to Enhance Crystal Growth

Physics / Condensed Matter

Dec 10, 2009 | 5 / 5 (2) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Two scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have developed a method to control the buildup of hydrogen fluoride gas during the growth of precision crystals ...

Highlight: Exploiting strain fields

Physics / Condensed Matter

Dec 10, 2009 | not rated yet | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Electronic devices of the future may benefit from a fundamental discovery that allows researchers to customize the electronic properties of complex materials such as single-crystal thin-film structures.

A see-through surprise: Scientists make solid material transparent to terahertz waves

Physics / Condensed Matter

Dec 07, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (19) | 1

Very often in science, the unexpected discovery turns out to be the most significant. Rice University Professor Junichiro Kono and his team weren't looking for a breakthrough in the transmission of terahertz signals, but ...

Multiferroic compounds used to produce smaller and cheaper digital memories

Physics / Condensed Matter

Nov 27, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (6) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Is it possible to make even more compact digital memories for portable electronic devices and which consume even less energy? A team of French researchers has recently demonstrated that it ...

Researchers take the lead out of piezoelectrics

Physics / Condensed Matter

Nov 13, 2009 | 3.7 / 5 (3) | 0

There is good news for the global effort to reduce the amount of lead in the environment and for the growing array of technologies that rely upon the piezoelectric effect. A lead-free alternative to the current ...

Ionic Liquid's Makeup Measurably Non-Uniform at the Nanoscale

Physics / Condensed Matter

Nov 10, 2009 | 5 / 5 (1) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at Texas Tech University, Queen's University in Belfast, Ireland, the University of Rome and the National Research Council in Italy recently made a discovery about the non-uniform chemical compositions ...