Light in the nanoworld

Quantum light sources pave the way for optical circuits

06-Aug-2019 - An international team headed up by Alexander Holleitner and Jonathan Finley, physicists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), has succeeded in placing light sources in atomically thin material layers with an accuracy of just a few nanometers. The new method allows for a multitude of ...

Researchers examine 'living' nanomaterials for first time

New technology gives insight into how nanomaterials form and grow

01-Jul-2019 - A new form of electron microscopy allows researchers to examine nanoscale tubular materials while they are "alive" and forming liquids -- a first in the field. Developed by a multidisciplinary team at Northwestern University and the University of Tennessee, the new technique, called variable ...

Turning a molecule into a coherent two-level quantum system

08-Mar-2019 - Organic dye molecules are commonly known from color pigments or from fluorescence microscopy in biology. Although as any other molecule, they are fundamentally quantum mechanical objects made of a small number of atoms, they are usually not associated with quantum technologies, not even within ...

Molecular motors: Chemical carousel rotates in the cold

26-Nov-2018 - LMU chemists have developed the first molecular motor that can be powered by light alone. Its operation is therefore essentially independent of the temperature. Molecular motors, which rotate unidirectionally in response to an external energy input, constitute an important class of components for ...

Detecting light in a different dimension

Polymer nanostructures longer than wide make graphene a better light detector

14-Nov-2018 - Scientists from the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) have dramatically improved the response of graphene to light through self-assembling wire-like nanostructures that conduct electricity. The improvement could pave the way for the development of graphene-based detectors that can quickly ...

Ultrathin and ultralight 'nanocardboard'

08-Nov-2018 - When choosing materials to make something, trade-offs need to be made between a host of properties, such as thickness, stiffness and weight. Depending on the application in question, finding just the right balance is the difference between success and failure Now, a team of Penn Engineers has ...

Connecting the (Nano)dots

Big-picture thinking can advance nanoparticle manufacturing

24-Aug-2018 - Nanoparticle manufacturing, the production of material units less than 100 nanometers in size (100,000 times smaller than a marble), is proving the adage that “good things come in small packages.” Today’s engineered nanoparticles are integral components of everything from the quantum dot ...

Nearly pure nanotubes from unusual catalyst

30-Jul-2018 - Growing a batch of carbon nanotubes that are all the same may not be as simple as researchers had hoped, according to Rice University scientists. Rice materials theorist Boris Yakobson and his team bucked a theory that when growing nanotubes in a furnace, a catalyst with a specific atomic ...

Future electronic components to be printed like newspapers

24-Jul-2018 - A new manufacturing technique uses a process similar to newspaper printing to form smoother and more flexible metals for making ultrafast electronic devices. The low-cost process, developed by Purdue University researchers, combines tools already used in industry for manufacturing metals on a ...

Effective and cheap sound-absorbing nanofoam

28-Jun-2018 - The breakthrough material reduces a noise level by 100% more efficient comparing to standard analogs, cutting the level of noise transmission by 20-22 dB. The new foam reacts to sound waves not only of high but also of low frequencies, which can damage human health. A young scientist from the Far ...