For the first time, a silicon-based optical fiber with solar-cell capabilities has been developed that has been shown to be scalable to many meters in length. The research opens the door to the possibility of weaving together ...
Materials Science
Dec 6, 2012
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(Phys.org)—A device that looks like a tiny washboard may clean the clocks of current commercial products used to manipulate infrared light.
Optics & Photonics
Nov 16, 2012
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(Phys.org)—Integrated circuits, which are in everything from coffeemakers to computers and are patterned from perfectly crystalline silicon, are quite thin—but Cornell researchers think they can push thin-film boundaries ...
Nanomaterials
Aug 29, 2012
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A new class of organic materials developed at Northwestern University boasts a very attractive but elusive property: ferroelectricity. The crystalline materials also have a great memory, which could be very useful in computer ...
Condensed Matter
Aug 22, 2012
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Researchers from Rice University and UCLA unveiled a new data-encoding scheme this week that slashes more than 30 percent of the energy needed to write data onto new memory cards that use "phase-change memory" (PCM) -- a ...
Computer Sciences
Jun 7, 2012
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(Phys.org) -- Ferroelectricity, which was first observed in the 1940s, is an interesting phenomenon involving the spontaneous (non-induced) formation of charge polarization (separation of charge) in certain materials. This ...
Condensed Matter
May 18, 2012
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A technique for creating a new molecule that structurally and chemically replicates the active part of the widely used industrial catalyst molybdenite has been developed by researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National ...
Materials Science
Feb 9, 2012
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(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has found bright veins of a mineral, apparently gypsum, deposited by water. Analysis of the vein will help improve understanding of the history of wet environments ...
Space Exploration
Dec 8, 2011
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Nature is a master builder. Using a bottom-up approach, nature takes tiny atoms and, through chemical bonding, makes crystalline materials, like diamonds, silicon and even table salt. In all of them, the properties of the ...
Nanomaterials
Oct 13, 2011
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Neutron analysis of the atomic dynamics behind thermal conductivity is helping scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory gain a deeper understanding of how thermoelectric materials work. The analysis ...
Condensed Matter
Jun 6, 2011
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