Nanotechnology News – Latest Headlines

Ferroelectrics could pave way for ultra-low power computing

Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, have shown that it is possible to reduce the minimum voltage necessary to store charge in a capacitor, an achievement that could reduce the power draw and heat generation of today's electronics.

September 12, 2011 Read more

$13-million NSF center to explore new ways to manipulate light at the nanoscale

A new $13-million National Science Foundation center based at the University of Michigan will develop high-tech materials that manipulate light in new ways. The research could enable advances such as invisibility cloaks, nanoscale lasers, high-efficiency lighting, and quantum computers.

September 12, 2011 Read more

European project achieves major milestone towards fabricating silicon photonics circuits in CMOS foundries

By demonstrating for the first time a 40Gbit/s optical modulator in silicon with a record extinction ratio of 10dB (the power difference between the 1 and 0 data levels), members of the HELIOS Project accomplished one of the key project goals needed to build and optimize the entire supply chain for fabricating complex functional silicon- photonics devices from design to the process level.

September 12, 2011 Read more

Spintronics: Lateral voltage boost

Tailoring the interfaces of lateral spin valves yields improved spin injection and 'giant' enhancement of spin accumulation.

September 12, 2011 Read more

Organic solar cells: One layer at a time

The formation of well-controlled junctions tunes the performance of organic solar cells.

September 12, 2011 Read more

Separation of metallic and semiconducting carbon nanotubes by 'scotch tape'

Inspired by the Nobel Prize-winning research on the mechanical exfoliation of graphene using 'scotch tape', researchers have now devised a method for the separation of semiconducting and metallic CNTs without damaging them.

September 12, 2011 Read more

Graphene rocks

An electrical current passing through a graphene film can produce sound by heating the surrounding air.

September 12, 2011 Read more

Spin pumping effect proven for the first time

RUB physicists make high-precision experiments on the dynamics in spin valves.

September 12, 2011 Read more

Ultrasmall peptides harnessed to repair spinal disc damage

New ultrasmall peptides that can be used as building blocks for a wide range of regenerative applications such as spinal disc replacement and cartilage repair have been developed by scientists at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN), the world's first bioengineering and nanotechnology research institute. These peptides spontaneously assemble in water to form hydrogels, which resemble collagen, a major component of connective tissues found in cartilage, ligaments, tendons, bone and skin.

September 12, 2011 Read more

A guiding light for new directions in energy production

EPFL Professor and father of optofluidics says the new field could help solve the energy challenge.

September 11, 2011 Read more

ARPA-E announces 2012 Energy Innovation Summit

The U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) Director, Arun Majumdar, announced yesterday that the Agency will hold its third annual ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit from February 27 - 29, 2012 at the Gaylord Convention Center just outside Washington, D.C

September 9, 2011 Read more

NSF announces results of the Materials Research Centers and teams competition

The National Science Foundation (NSF) yestertoday announced awards for three Materials Interdisciplinary Research Teams (MIRT) and nine Centers of Excellence in Materials Research and Innovation, also known as Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSEC). The awards resulted from the 2011 Materials Research Centers and Teams competition (solicitation NSF 10-568).

September 9, 2011 Read more

UDE-Tagung: Schaden Nanomaterialien der Gesundheit?

Welche Wege Nanopartikel im Organismus nehmen und was das fuer Folgen hat, erforschen seit drei Jahren Wissenschaftler in Deutschland unter Leitung der Uni Duisburg-Essen. Nun liegen erste Ergebnisse vor, die sie vom 11. bis 15. September bei einer internationalen Konferenz am Campus Essen diskutieren wollen: "International Conference on Biological Responses to Nanoscale Particles".

September 9, 2011 Read more

Taming light - Mastering the fine structuring of ultrashort light fields

An expedition through the fast-paced microscopic world of atoms reveals electrons that spin at enormous speeds and the gigantic forces that act on them. Monitoring the ultrafast motion of these electrons requires ultrashort flashes of light. However, in order to control them, the structure of these light flashes, or light pulses, needs to be tamed as well. This type of control over light pulses has now been achieved, for the first time.

September 9, 2011 Read more

Pushing the frontier of state control

The ability to use magnetic fields to control a newly identified state of matter could enable more efficient memory devices.

September 9, 2011 Read more

IAA 2011: Reducing costs of electric vehicle batteries

KIT closes gaps in the innovation chain of electromobility. Reference factory planned as development platform for industry and science

September 9, 2011 Read more