Crystal phenomena as a research area investigates the physical behaviors and properties that arise from the ordered atomic or molecular arrangements in crystalline solids, including symmetry-governed effects and defect-related responses. It encompasses studies of phase transitions, lattice dynamics, crystallographic defects (dislocations, vacancies, interfaces), anisotropic mechanical, thermal, and electronic behavior, as well as optical and dielectric responses governed by crystal symmetry and band structure. The field integrates experimental techniques such as X-ray and neutron diffraction, electron microscopy, and spectroscopies with theoretical and computational methods to elucidate structure–property relationships, enabling the design and control of functional materials in electronics, photonics, mechanics, and quantum technologies.
Remote epitaxy has been gaining attention in the field of semiconductor manufacturing for growing thin films that copy the crystal structure of the template, which can later be exfoliated to form freestanding membranes. However, ...
Nanomaterials
Sep 12, 2023
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75
The next generation of 2D semiconductor materials doesn't like what it sees when it looks in the mirror. Current synthesizing approaches to make single-layer nanosheets of semiconducting material for atomically thin electronics ...
Nanophysics
Aug 4, 2023
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258
Northwestern investigators have demonstrated that fine-tuning DNA interaction strength can improve colloidal crystal engineering to enhance their use in creating an array of functional nanomaterials, according to a recent ...
Bio & Medicine
May 8, 2023
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124
For the first time ever, researchers have watched the mesmerizing process of nanoparticles self-assembling into solid materials. In the stunning new videos, particles rain down, tumble along stairsteps and slide around before ...
Nanophysics
Mar 30, 2023
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X-ray diffraction has been used for more than a hundred years to understand the structure of crystals or proteins—for instance, in 1952 the well-known double helix structure of the DNA that carries genetic information was ...
Nanophysics
Mar 3, 2023
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138
The structure of two-dimensional titanium oxide breaks up at high temperatures when one adds barium; instead of regular hexagons, rings of four, seven and ten atoms are created that order aperiodically.
Nanophysics
Jan 26, 2023
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248
A crystal's shape is determined by its inherent chemistry, a characteristic that ultimately determines its final form from the most basic of details. But sometimes the lack of symmetry in a crystal makes the surface energies ...
Nanophysics
Nov 28, 2022
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First insights into engineering crystal growth by atomically precise metal nanoclusters have been achieved in a study performed by researchers in Singapore, Saudi Arabia and Finland. The work was published in Nature Chemistry.
Nanophysics
Nov 11, 2022
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Northwestern University researchers have uncovered a previously unknown property of colloidal crystals, highly ordered three-dimensional arrays of nanoparticles.
Nanomaterials
Oct 17, 2022
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88
Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) are a class of materials with physical properties that make them ideally suited for use in flexible optoelectronic applications, such as light detectors, light-emitting diodes and ...
Nanophysics
Oct 5, 2022
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