News tagged with silicon structure

New nanostructure for batteries keeps going and going

(Phys.org) -- For more than a decade, scientists have tried to improve lithium-based batteries by replacing the graphite in one terminal with silicon, which can store 10 times more charge. But after just a ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created May 11, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (67) | comments 28 | with audio podcast

Group uses controlled cracking for nanofabrication

(Phys.org) -- When creating nanomaterials, cracking is generally considered a problem; it usually means something has gone wrong and the result, as with other material making processes such as glass or ceramics, ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created May 10, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast report

'Tunable' metal nanostructures for fuel cells, batteries and solar energy

(PhysOrg.com) -- For catalysts in fuel cells and electrodes in batteries, engineers would like to manufacture metal films that are porous, to make more surface area available for chemical reactions, and highly ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Apr 03, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (8) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Saving data in vortex structures: New physical phenomenon could drastically reduce computer energy consumption

A new phenomenon might make computing devices faster, smaller and much more energy-efficient. Moving so-called skyrmions needs 100,000 times smaller currents than existing technologies and the number of atoms ...

Physics / General Physics

created Feb 21, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (13) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

How to build doughnuts with Lego blocks

Scientists have uncovered how nature minimises energy costs in rings of liquids with an internal nanostructure made of two chemically discordant polymers joined with strong bonds, or di-blocks, deposited on ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Dec 21, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Butterfly wings inspire design of water-repellent surface

Researchers mimic the many-layered nanostructure of blue mountain swallowtail wings to make a silicon wafer that traps both air and light.

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Nov 21, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Team develops method for creating 3D photonic crystals

Dutch researchers at the University of Twente's MESA+ research institute, together with ASML, TNO (the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research) and TU/e (Eindhoven University of Technology) ...

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Nov 07, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 5

Nanomaterials: Pillars of the assembly

The ever-increasing demand for enhanced performance in electronic devices such as solar cells, sensors and batteries is matched by a need to find ways to make smaller electrical components. Several techniques ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Sep 29, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 1

A faster, cheaper method for making transistors and chips

(PhysOrg.com) -- It may soon be possible manufacture the miniscule structures that make up transistors and silicon chips rapidly and inexpensively. Swiss scientists are currently investigating the use of dynamic ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Sep 26, 2011 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (9) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Microspiders: Polymerization reaction drives micromotors

(PhysOrg.com) -- Though it seems like science fiction, microscopic "factories" in which nanomachines produce tiny structures for miniaturized components or nanorobots that destroy tumor cells within the body ...

Chemistry / Polymers

created Sep 02, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

SNS, HFIR experiments help refine thin-film solar cells

(PhysOrg.com) -- Solar cells that convert sunlight into electricity could be a widely used renewable energy source. Getting to that point, though, requires breakthroughs in their cost and their efficiency at turning sunbeams ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Sep 02, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Researchers use electron beams for chemical reactions

Electron microscopes use focussed electron beams to make extremely small objects visible. By combining the instrument with a gas-injection system material samples can be manipulated and surface structures ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Apr 13, 2011 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Laser pulses crystallize amorphous silicon, create nanostructured surface ideal for solar-cell applications

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 ...

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Mar 04, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 1

Nano 'pin art': NIST arrays are step toward mass production of nanowires

NIST researchers grow nanowires made of semiconductors -- gallium nitride alloys -- by depositing atoms layer-by-layer on a silicon crystal under high vacuum. NIST has the unusual capability to produce these ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Jul 30, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

A pinch of light: Laser 'tweezers' for medicine, communications and harvesting energy

Star Trek fans will remember "tractor beams," lasers that allowed the Starship Enterprise to trap and move objects. Tel Aviv University is now turning this science fiction into science fact -- on a nano scale.

Physics / General Physics

created Jul 06, 2010 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (11) | comments 0 | with audio podcast