Scanning techniques are instrumental methodologies that acquire spatially resolved information from a specimen or environment by systematically interrogating it point-by-point or line-by-line, often using a focused probe such as photons, electrons, ions, or mechanical tips. These techniques include modalities like scanning electron microscopy, scanning probe microscopies, and various spectroscopic scanning methods, which map physical, chemical, or electronic properties across a surface or volume. Key parameters include spatial and temporal resolution, signal-to-noise ratio, and contrast mechanisms determined by probe–sample interactions. Scanning techniques are fundamental for nanoscale characterization, metrology, and defect analysis in materials science, biology, and semiconductor research.
For smartphones and computers to become smaller and faster, technologies capable of precisely controlling electrical properties at the nanoscale—beyond what is visible to the naked eye—are essential. In particular, ferroelectric ...
Nanomaterials
Apr 8, 2026
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7
Solar-power photocatalysis—turning sunlight into energy—holds promise for sustainable and cost-efficient energy and chemical production. Advancing the technology, though, has been hindered by a lack of understanding of exactly ...
Nanophysics
Apr 3, 2026
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15
An international team of researchers built a highly sensitive quantum microscope and used it to directly observe, for the first time at room temperature, how electrons subtly interact with each other in graphene—confirming ...
Nanophysics
Mar 30, 2026
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97
CRISPR is a powerful DNA-editing tool that has underpinned huge advancements in human health care in the last decade. It is a precision tool, but is not perfect, and misplaced DNA edits can compromise safety and efficacy, ...
Biotechnology
Mar 26, 2026
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46
A team of researchers led by the University of Pittsburgh demonstrated a programmable superconducting diode at the LaAlO3/KTaO3 (LAO/KTO) interface, an advance that holds potential to enhance/help usher in the future of next-generation ...
Nanophysics
Mar 26, 2026
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73
Biological membranes of cells and their subunits (organelles) are organized into tiny regions (nanodomains) made up of fats (lipids) and proteins. Those specialized regions carry out important tasks for the cell, such as ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 24, 2026
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9
Multiferroic metals are materials that exhibit both electric polarization and magnetic order in the same crystal—a state known as multiferroicity. Because these properties coexist, they can interact through magnetoelectric ...
Condensed Matter
Mar 13, 2026
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63
For more than a decade, Evan Economo's lab has been using micro-CT machines to scan insect specimens. The resulting X-ray images help researchers study the form and structure of insects—a subfield of entomology known as morphology—but ...
Ecology
Mar 5, 2026
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62
Scientists at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a new way to determine atomic structures from nanocrystals previously considered unusable, a breakthrough that could ...
Nanomaterials
Mar 4, 2026
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20
Physicists in China have unveiled new clues to the origins of high-temperature superconductivity in an iron-based material just a single unit-cell thick. Led by Qi-Kun Xue and Lili Wang at Tsinghua University, the team's ...
