Showing Spotlights 145 - 152 of 155 in category All (newest first):
Photonic crystals are attractive optical materials for controlling and manipulating the flow of light. They can be engineered to produce a variety of optical filtering functions. The growing efforts of physicists and materials scientists to fabricate photonic (nano)crystals were motivated mainly by the potential application of these materials in optical computing, the manufacturing of more efficient lasers, and other exciting new phenomena, like those arising from the application of disturbances such as shock waves. The manufacturing of large-area photonic crystals operating in the visible spectrum is still a challenging and expensive task, given present-day laboratory techniques. However, as with so many other materials, nature has already found a solution. Because they are ready made, common in nature, and because they show a very high complexity, biological photonic-crystal structures will be an essential tool for building a useful knowledge of inhomogeneous optical media.
Sep 21st, 2006
Cantilever based back-illuminated full body glass tips with thin metal layers can be used as apertureless optical near-field probes with single molecule sensitivity and optical resolutions down to 15 nm exceeding by far the classical diffraction limit of Abbe.
Jun 21st, 2006
An electrochromic display is one of the most attractive candidates for paper-like displays, so called electronic paper, which will be the next generation display, owing to attributes such as thin and flexible materials, low-power consumption, and fast switching times.
Jun 19th, 2006
Optical labeling is an important tool in biological imaging because it offers superb discrimination between the sites of interest and the crowded background of a biological specimen. Diamonds nanocrystals have several advantages over other optical labels and open new opportunities in optical imaging, especially in applications where the size of optical labels represents an important parameter.
Jun 1st, 2006
Researchers in Germany managed to integrate quantum dots (QD) into the walls of nano- and microtubes. This novel structure serves as a quantum light emitter as well as optical waveguide. This represents a major step toward the realization of flexible high quality factor optical resonators based on tubes.
Apr 11th, 2006
Nano Zinc Oxide (ZnO) and Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) are arguably two of the most studied nanomaterials in recent years. Combining these two nanomaterials into hybrid nanomaterial presents a fascinating nanosystem for further investigations.
Mar 10th, 2006
Researchers in the UK and Germany told Nanowerk that they developed a simple, fast and efficient method for fabricating metallic photonic crystals. This new method opens the door to a number of applications in telecommunication, all-optical switching, sensors, and semiconductor devices.
Mar 8th, 2006
The application of phase and polarization control may lead to guidance of light in the nanoscale via metal nanoparticle arrays.
Mar 3rd, 2006
Subscribe to our Nanotechnology Spotlight feed