Category Physics

Dynamically tunable multispot optofluidic waveguide.

Novel technology combines high-performance microfluidics for sample processing with dynamic optical tuning and switching, all on a low-cost “chip” made of a flexible silicone material. In previous devices from Schmidt’s lab, optical functions were built into silicon chips using the same fabrication technology used to make computer chips. The new device is made entirely of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), a soft, flexible material used in microfluidics as well as in products such as contact lenses and medical devices.

“We can use this fabrication method now to build an all-in-one device that allows us to do biological sample processing and optical detection on one chip,” said Schmidt, the Kapany Professor of Optoelectronics and director of th...

Credit: ORNL An ORNL study found that complex oxide materials can self-organize into electrical circuits, which creates the possibility for new types of computer chips.

Researchers studying nanoscale materials at the Dept of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Lab have uncovered remarkable behavior that could advance microprocessors beyond today’s silicon-based chips. A single crystal complex oxide material, when confined to micro- and nanoscales, can act like a multi-component electrical circuit. This behavior stems from an unusual feature of certain complex oxides called phase separation, in which tiny regions in the material exhibit different electronic and magnetic properties.

It means individual nanoscale regions in complex oxide materials can behave as self-organized circuit elements, which ...

The new material comprising tin, iodine and phosphorus possesses a double helix structure which provides the semiconductor with extreme mechanical flexibility. Credit: Prof. Tom Nilges / TUM

New flexible semiconductor for electronics, solar technology and photo catalysis. It is the double helix, with its stable and flexible structure of genetic information, that made life on Earth possible in the first place. Now a team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has discovered a double helix structure in an inorganic material. The material called SnIP, comprising tin (Sn), iodine (I) and phosphorus(P) is a semiconductor with extraordinary optical and electronic properties, and extreme mechanical flexibility.The centimeter-long fibers can be arbitrarily bent without breaking.

“This prope...

A schematic (left) and photograph (right) of a photonic dew point temperature sensor developed by Ji Fang Tao and co-workers, which works by detecting changes in the refraction of light as water molecules condense onto the device. (left) © 2015 IEEE. Reprinted, with permission, from Ref 1. (right) © 2016 A*STAR Institute of Microelectronics

Electromagnetic waves created on a layer of organic molecules could provide the perfect on-chip light source for future quantum communication systems...