Nanotechnology News – Latest Headlines

Graphene supercurrents go ballistic

Researchers have demonstrated superconducting electric currents in the two-dimensional material graphene that bounce between sheet edges without scattering.

Jul 29th, 2015

Physicists close in on world's most sensitive resonators

In their quest to make the world's most precise sensors, physicists have developed a novel method of manipulating mechanical resonators to be sensitive enough to work at the quantum scale.

Jul 28th, 2015

Short wavelength plasmons observed in nanotubes

Researchers have observed 'Luttinger-liquid' plasmons in metallic single-walled nanotubes. This holds great promise for novel plasmonic and nanophotonic devices over a broad frequency range, including telecom wavelengths.

Jul 28th, 2015

"Seeing' molecular interactions could give boost to organic electronics

For the first time, researchers have directly seen how organic molecules bind to other materials at the atomic level. Using a special kind of electron microscopy, this information can lead to increasing the life span of electronic devices, for example.

Jul 28th, 2015

Carbon nanotube speakers play music with heat (w/video)

While still a fledgling technology, the potential applications are nearly endless. Everything from de-icing helicopter blades to making lighter loudspeakers to doubling as a car speaker and heating filament for back windshield defrosters.

Jul 28th, 2015

Interacting ion qutrits

Researchers have used trapped atomic ions to construct a system that could potentially support a type of symmetry-protected quantum state.

Jul 28th, 2015

How ants keep their antennae clean could have applications in nanotechnology (w/video)

Using unique mechanical experiments and close-up video, researchers have shown how ants use microscopic 'combs' and 'brushes' to keep their antennae clean, which could have applications for developing cleaners for nanotechnology.

Jul 28th, 2015

Spins in graphene with a hedgehog texture

At a surface or interface the electron spin can form specific patterns but it remains in the surface plane. Researchers have now succeeded in turning the spin out of the plane, and they explain why this is a principle property.

Jul 28th, 2015

Asymmetric optical-invisibility camouflage

Researchers have formulated a theory of asymmetric (or nonreciprocal) camouflage that can achieve unidirectional transparency in which 'they cannot see us, but we can see them'.

Jul 28th, 2015

Reshaping the solar spectrum to turn light to electricity

Researchers find a way to use the infrared region of the sun's spectrum to make solar cells more efficient.

Jul 28th, 2015

Making polymer nanostructures from a greenhouse gas

Scientists have introduced a two-step, one-pot conversion of CO2 and epoxides to polycarbonate block copolymers that contain both water-soluble and hydrophobic regions and can aggregate into nanoparticles or micelles.

Jul 27th, 2015

A new type of modulator for the future of data transmission

Researchers present a novel modulator that is a hundred times smaller and that can, therefore, be easily integrated into electronic circuits. Moreover, the new modulator is considerably cheaper and faster than common models, and it uses far less energy.

Jul 27th, 2015

Smart hydrogel coating creates 'stick-slip' control of capillary action

Coating the inside of glass microtubes with a polymer hydrogel material dramatically alters the way capillary forces draw water into the tiny structures, researchers have found. The discovery could provide a new way to control microfluidic systems, including popular lab-on-a-chip devices.