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    Category Physics

    Transparent Ceramics make Super-Hard Windows

    March 17, 2017, Categories  Chemistry/Nanotechnology, Physics, Technology/Electronics

    This is a sample of transparent polycrystalline cubic silicon nitride with a diameter of approximately two millimeters, synthesized at DESY. Credit: Norimasa Nishiyama, DESY/Tokyo Tech

    This is a sample of transparent polycrystalline cubic silicon nitride with a diameter of approximately two millimeters, synthesized at DESY. Credit: Norimasa Nishiyama, DESY/Tokyo Tech

    Scientists synthesize 1st sample of transparent silicon nitride, ie popular industrial ceramic DESY.The result is a super-hard window made of cubic silicon nitride that can potentially be used under extreme conditions like in engines. Cubic silicon nitride (c-Si3N4) forms under high pressure and is the 2nd hardest transparent nanoceramic after diamond but can withstand substantially higher temperatures.

    “Silicon nitride is a very popular ceramic in industry,” explains lead author Dr. Norimasa Nishiyama from DESY, now is an associate professor at Tokyo Institute of Technology...

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    Research leads to a Golden Discovery for Wearable Technology

    March 17, 2017, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics, Chemistry/Nanotechnology

    An example of a gold foil peeled from single crystal silicon. Credit: Reprinted with permission from Naveen Mahenderkar et al., Science [355]:[1203] (2017)

    An example of a gold foil peeled from single crystal silicon.
    Credit: Reprinted with permission from Naveen Mahenderkar et al., Science [355]:[1203] (2017)

    Some day, your smartphone might completely conform to your wrist, and when it does, it might be covered in pure gold, thanks to researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology. They have developed a way to “grow” thin layers of gold on single crystal wafers of silicon, remove the gold foils, and use them as substrates on which to grow other electronic materials. This could revolutionize wearable or “flexible” technology research, greatly improving versatility of electronics in the future.

    Most research into wearable technology has been done using polymer substrates, or substrates made up of multiple crystals...

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    Electro-Optical Switch Transmits Data at Record-Low Temperatures

    March 16, 2017, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    Electro-optical switch transmits data at record-low temperatures

    An illustration of a silicon photonic micro-disk modulator operating at cryogenic temperatures. Light traveling down the silicon waveguide couples to the resonance of the micro-disk cavity. An electrical signal applied to the disk shifts the resonance and as a result modulates the light passing through the waveguide. (Rendered by Hanqing Kuang) Credit: Michael Gehl, Sandia National Laboratories

    A silicon optical switch newly developed at Sandia National Laboratories is the first to transmit up to 10 Gb/s of data at temperatures just a few degrees above 0K. The device could enable data transmission for next-generation superconducting computers that store and process data at cryogenic temperatures...

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    Imaging at the Speed of Light

    March 15, 2017, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics, Chemistry/Nanotechnology

    lasers configured on a tabletop

    Researchers at the University’s Institute of Optics developed a technique that uses lasers to render materials hydrophobic—extremely water repellant. (University photo / Matthew Mann)

    Tiny micro- and nanoscale structures within a material’s surface are invisible to the naked eye, but play a big role in determining a material’s physical, chemical, and biomedical properties. Over the past few years, Chunlei Guo and his University of Rochester team found ways to manipulate those structures by irradiating laser pulses to a material’s surface. They altered materials to make them repel water, attract water, and absorb great amounts of light – all without any type of coating. Now, Guo, Anatoliy Vorobyev, and Ranran Fang at University’s Institute of Optics, have advanced the research...

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