http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (PhysOrg.com) -- Writing in the journal Nature Physics, the academics, who discovered the world's thinnest material at The University of Manchester in 2004, have revealed more about its electronic properties. http://phys.org/news230732892.html Nanotechnology Sun, 24 Jul 2011 13:28:29 EST news230732892 (PhysOrg.com) -- A violation of one of the oldest empirical laws of physics has been observed by scientists at the University of Bristol. Their experiments on purple bronze, a metal with unique one-dimensional electronic properties, indicate that it breaks the Wiedemann-Franz Law. This historic discovery is described in a paper published today in Nature Communications. http://phys.org/news230381723.html Physics Wed, 20 Jul 2011 11:55:38 EST news230381723 Modern electronics as we know them, from televisions to computers, depend on conducting materials that can control electronic properties. As technology shrinks down to pocket sized communications devices and microchips that can fit on the head of a pin, nano-sized conducting materials are in big demand. http://phys.org/news229941975.html Nanotechnology Fri, 15 Jul 2011 10:40:01 EST news229941975 (PhysOrg.com) -- For Hollywood celebrities, the term "splitsville" usually means "check your prenup." For scientists wanting to mass-produce high quality nanoribbons from boron nitride nanotubes, "splitsville" could mean "happily ever after." http://phys.org/news228481159.html Nanotechnology Tue, 28 Jun 2011 11:59:44 EST news228481159 (PhysOrg.com) -- Stony Brook University graduate student Qiang Zhu, together with Professor of Geosciences and Physics, Artem R. Oganov, postdoc Andriy O. Lyakhov and their colleagues from the University de Oviedo in Spain, have predicted three new forms of carbon, the findings of which were published in a paper entitled "Denser than diamond: Ab initio search for superdense carbon allotropes," in the June 7, 2011 online edition of Physical Review B. So far, each new found modification of carbon resulted in a scientific, technological revolution – the same could happen now, if scientists can find a way to synthesize these new forms of carbon. http://phys.org/news226729113.html Physics Wed, 08 Jun 2011 05:19:04 EST news226729113 (PhysOrg.com) -- Graphene is a two-dimensional honeycomb of carbon, just one atom thick, whose intriguing electronic properties include very high electron mobility and very low resistivity. Graphene is so sensitive to its environment, however, that these remarkable attributes can be wrecked by interference from nearby materials. Finding the best substrate on which to mount graphene is critical if graphene devices are ever to become practical. http://phys.org/news225959162.html Nanotechnology Mon, 30 May 2011 07:26:58 EST news225959162 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have shown that the electronic properties of two layers of graphene vary on the nanometer scale. The surprising new results reveal that not only does the difference in the strength of the electric charges between the two layers vary across the layers, but they also actually reverse in sign to create randomly distributed puddles of alternating positive and negative charges. Reported in Nature Physics, the new measurements bring graphene a step closer to being used in practical electronic devices. http://phys.org/news223118874.html Nanotechnology Wed, 27 Apr 2011 10:28:18 EST news223118874 With its promise of superfast computers and ultrapowerful optical microscopes among the many possibilities, plasmonics has become one of the hottest fields in high-technology. However, to date plasmonic properties have been limited to nanostructures that feature interfaces between noble metals and dielectrics. Now, researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have shown that plasmonic properties can also be achieved in the semiconductor nanocrystals known as quantum dots. This discovery should make the field of plasmonics even hotter. http://phys.org/news222349490.html Nanotechnology Mon, 18 Apr 2011 13:20:03 EST news222349490 (PhysOrg.com) -- In a report published in Nature, Yu-ming Lin and Phaedon Avoris, IBM researchers, have announced the development of a new graphene transistor which is smaller and faster than the one they introduced in February of 2010. This new transistor has a cut-off frequency of 155 GHz, compared to the 100 GHz previous transistor. http://phys.org/news221745578.html Nanotechnology Mon, 11 Apr 2011 13:00:14 EST news221745578 (PhysOrg.com) -- Studies done by Mark Lusk and colleagues at the Colorado School of Mines could significantly improve the efficiency of solar cells. Their latest work describes how the size of light-absorbing particles--quantum dots--affects the particles' ability to transfer energy to electrons to generate electricity. http://phys.org/news220283628.html Nanotechnology Fri, 25 Mar 2011 14:55:46 EST news220283628 The importance of silicon for almost every element in modern-day electronic devices and computers is due largely to its crystalline atomic structure. Crystalline silicon, however, is much more expensive to produce than its non-crystalline or amorphous form, which has limited the cost reduction achievable in devices such as silicon-based solar cells. Xincai Wang at the A*STAR Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology and co-workers have now shown that ultrafast pulses of light can be used to crystallize amorphous silicon and to texture its surface. http://phys.org/news218449869.html Physics Fri, 04 Mar 2011 08:31:44 EST news218449869 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new way of splitting layered materials, similar to graphite, into sheets of material just one atom thick could lead to revolutionary new electronic and energy storage technologies. http://phys.org/news215964953.html Nanotechnology Thu, 03 Feb 2011 14:16:16 EST news215964953 There's good news in the search for the next generation of semiconductors. Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California Berkeley, have successfully integrated ultra-thin layers of the semiconductor indium arsenide onto a silicon substrate to create a nanoscale transistor with excellent electronic properties. A member of the III–V family of semiconductors, indium arsenide offers several advantages as an alternative to silicon including superior electron mobility and velocity, which makes it an oustanding candidate for future low-power, high-speed electronic devices. http://phys.org/news209663331.html Nanotechnology Mon, 22 Nov 2010 15:49:28 EST news209663331 (PhysOrg.com) -- Smaller and smarter: this is the aim of research in the quest for ever faster electronic devices smaller in size but capable of performing more complicated tasks. Devices consisting of the smallest possible components, molecular parts, have emerged as the answer. http://phys.org/news202974795.html Chemistry Mon, 06 Sep 2010 06:53:54 EST news202974795 European researchers have combined computer modelling of quantum mechanics and precision fabrication processes to create novel transparent conductive oxides made to order for a wide range of scientific and consumer applications. http://phys.org/news202115064.html Nanotechnology Fri, 27 Aug 2010 08:04:53 EST news202115064 (PhysOrg.com) -- "One of the most important goals in the optics community is to create and manipulate light on chip," Yinan Zhang tells PhysOrg.com. "This is especially important when it comes to improving the performance of semiconductor lasers with increasingly small device size. This device improvement, owing to recent developments in nanotechnology, will enable a high integration capacity of photonic devices in the future. This could take place in a fashion similar to what has happened to the semiconductor electronic industry." http://phys.org/news201940249.html Physics Wed, 25 Aug 2010 08:30:01 EST news201940249 Regarded as a possible replacement for silicon-based semiconductors, graphene, a sheet of pure carbon, has been discovered to have an uncommon and astonishing property that might make it better matched for future electronic devices. http://phys.org/news199624013.html Nanotechnology Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:00:17 EST news199624013 What researchers might call "white graphene" may be the perfect sidekick for the real thing as a new era unfolds in nanoscale electronics. http://phys.org/news199625313.html Nanotechnology Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:29:02 EST news199625313 Swiss researchers have built a transistor whose crucial element is a carbon nano-tube, suspended between two contacts, with outstanding electronic properties. A novel fabrication approach allowed the scientists to construct a transistor with no gate hysteresis. This opens up new ways to manufacture nano-sensors and components that consume particularly little energy. http://phys.org/news198948792.html Nanotechnology Wed, 21 Jul 2010 16:33:31 EST news198948792 In the recent issue of Nature, European scientists from Empa and the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research report how they have managed for the first time to grow graphene ribbons that are just a few nanometres wide using a simple surface-based chemical method. Graphene ribbons are considered to be "hot candidates" for future electronics applications as their properties can be adjusted through width and edge shape. http://phys.org/news198933750.html Nanotechnology Wed, 21 Jul 2010 13:00:21 EST news198933750 (PhysOrg.com) -- A novel way to directly detect the electronic properties at a complex oxide interface has been demonstrated by users from Argonne's Advanced Photon Source working collaboratively with researchers in the Electronic & Magnetic Materials Devices Group (Argonne National Laboratory). http://phys.org/news198910225.html Physics Wed, 21 Jul 2010 05:51:06 EST news198910225 Scientists have leaped over a major hurdle in efforts to begin commercial production of a form of carbon that could rival silicon in its potential for revolutionizing electronics devices ranging from supercomputers to cell phones. http://phys.org/news195311346.html Nanotechnology Wed, 09 Jun 2010 14:09:39 EST news195311346 Physicists at McGill University have developed a system for measuring the energy involved in adding electrons to semi-conductor nanocrystals, also known as quantum dots - a technology that may revolutionize computing and other areas of science. http://phys.org/news192801266.html Physics Tue, 11 May 2010 12:54:47 EST news192801266 (PhysOrg.com) -- Can graphene -- a newly discovered form of pure carbon that may one day replace the silicon in computers, televisions, mobile phones and other common electronic devices -- be made to bend, twist and roll? http://phys.org/news191054841.html Nanotechnology Wed, 21 Apr 2010 08:00:02 EST news191054841 At present, graphene probably is the most investigated new material system worldwide. Due to its astonishing mechanical, chemical and electronic properties, it promises manifold future applications - for example in microelectronics. The electrons in graphene are particularly movable and could, therefore, replace silicon which is used today as the basic material of fast computer chips. http://phys.org/news190893404.html Nanotechnology Mon, 19 Apr 2010 11:20:02 EST news190893404 Graphene, the two-dimensional crystalline form of carbon, is a potential superstar for the electronics industry. With freakishly mobile electrons that can blaze through the material at nearly the speed of light - 100 times faster than electrons can move through silicon - graphene could be used to make superfast transistors or computer memory chips. Graphene's unique "chicken wire" atomic structure exhibits incredible flexibility and mechanical strength, as well as unusual optical properties that could open a number of promising doors in both the electronics and the photonics industries. However, among the hurdles preventing graphene from joining the pantheon of star high-tech materials, perhaps none looms larger than just learning to make the stuff in high quality and usable quantities. http://phys.org/news189954890.html Nanotechnology Thu, 08 Apr 2010 14:15:48 EST news189954890 A team of nanotechnology researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University has used friction force microscopy to determine the nanoscale frictional characteristics of four atomically-thin materials, discovering a universal characteristic for these very different materials. Friction across these thin sheets increases as the number of atomic layers decreases, all the way down to one layer of atoms. This friction increase was surprising as there previously was no theory to predict this behavior. http://phys.org/news189348776.html Nanotechnology Thu, 01 Apr 2010 14:00:03 EST news189348776 What do shells, solar panels and DVDs have in common? At the atomic scale they are 'amorphous', that is -- unlike crystals -- they are built from irregular arrangements of atoms. http://phys.org/news188666658.html Physics Wed, 24 Mar 2010 16:25:42 EST news188666658 Composites are combinations of materials that produce properties inaccessible in any one material. A classic example of a composite is fiberglass - plastic fibers woven with glass to add strength to hockey sticks or the hull of a boat. Unlike the well-established techniques for producing fiberglass and other macroscale composites, however, there aren't general schemes available for making nanoscale composites. http://phys.org/news188240753.html Nanotechnology Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:06:12 EST news188240753 Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM) at Argonne National Laboratory users from Politecnico di Milano in Italy, working collaboratively with researchers in the Electronic & Magnetic Materials & Devices Group, have demonstrated the reversible and local modification of the electronic properties of graphene by hydrogen passivation and subsequent electron-stimulated hydrogen desorption with a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) tip. http://phys.org/news187549005.html Nanotechnology Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:20:01 EST news187549005