Category Physics

This is Tim Burgess with a silicon wafer on which nanostructures are grown. Credit: Stuart Hay, ANU

This will help in development of low-cost biomedical sensors, quantum computing, and a faster internet. Researcher Tim Burgess added atoms of zinc to lasers 1/100 the diameter of a human hair and made of gallium arsenide – a material used extensively in smartphones and other electronic devices. The impurities led to a 100X improvement in the amount of light from the lasers.

“Normally you wouldn’t even bother looking for light from nanocrystals of gallium arsenide – we were initially adding zinc simply to improve the electrical conductivity,” said Mr Burgess, a PhD student, ANU. “It was only when I happened to check for light emission that I realised we were onto something.”

Gallium arsenide ...

This is a bowtie-shaped nanoparticle made of silver with a trapped semiconductor quantum dot (indicated by the red arrow). Credit: Weizmann Institute of Science

Bowtie-shaped Nanostructures may advance development of Quantum devices. Made of silver, these may help bring the dream of quantum computing and quantum information processing closer to reality. They greatly simplify the experimental conditions for studying quantum phenomena and may one day be developed into crucial components.

Led by Prof. Gilad Haran of Weizmann’s Chemical Physics Department the team manufactured 2D bowtie-shaped silver nanoparticles with a minuscule gap of about 20 nanometers in the center...

Diagram showing the mechanism of the technique developed in this study. External voltage is applied to insert/remove lithium ions present in the solid electrolyte (lithium silicate) into/from the magnetic material (Fe3O4) to tune magnetoresistance and magnetization. Credit: Copyright NIMS

Scientists developed a device capable of controlling magnetism at a lower current level than conventional spintronics devices. The new device was fabricated by combining a solid electrolyte with a magnetic material, and enabling insertion/removal of ions into/from the magnetic material through application of voltage.

A research team of International center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA) developed a device capable of controlling magnetism at a lower current level than conventional spintronics devi...

A smart new material reacts to light, can remember its shape as it folds and unfolds and can heal itself when damaged. Credit: Image courtesy of Washington State University

Washington State University researchers have developed a unique, multifunctional smart material that can change shape from heat or light and assemble and disassemble itself. This is the first time researchers have been able to combine several smart abilities, including shape memory behavior, light-activated movement and self-healing behavior, into one material.

Smart materials that can react to external stimuli, like light or heat, have been an interesting novelty and look almost magical as they mysteriously fold and unfold themselves...