Category Technology/Electronics

Artist’s rendition of a quantum thermometer, a micron-scale mechanical device that can provide highly accurate temperature. Credit: Emily Edwards/Joint Quantum Institute

Versatile optomechanical beams have potential applications in biology, chemistry, electronics. In an arranged marriage of optics and mechanics, physicists have created microscopic structural beams that have a variety of powerful uses when light strikes them. Able to operate in ordinary, room-temperature environments, yet exploiting some of the deepest principles of quantum physics, these optomechanical systems can act as inherently accurate thermometers, or conversely, as a type of optical shield that diverts heat.

The potential applications include chip-based temperature sensors for electronics and biology that would neve...

Versatile Barometer Biosensor Based on Au@Pt Core/Shell Nanoparticle Probe

When it comes to testing for cancer, environmental pollution and food contaminants, traditional sensors can help. The challenges are that they often are bulky, expensive, non-intuitive and complicated. Now, one team reports in ACS Sensors that portable pressure-based detectors coupled with smartphone software could provide a simpler, more affordable alternative while still maintaining sensitivity.

Current disease and contamination sensors require expensive readout equipment or trained personnel. Yuehe Lin, Yong Tang and colleagues propose a new detection system based on pressure changes...

CWRU chemists developed a space-saving method to store digital data optically, using four-symbol, or quaternary code. The four symbols are the absence of color and three colors — fluorescent green, ultramarine and cyan — produced when dyes contained in a common polymer are exposed to heat, ultraviolet light or both. Credit: Emily Pentzer

Chemists at Case Western Reserve University have found a way to possibly store digital data in half the space current systems require. From supercomputers to smartphones, the amount of data people generate and collect continues to grow exponentially, and the need to store all that information grows with it. To reduce storage space, engineers have traditionally used existing technology but made it smaller...

1. Laser sintering was used to 3-D print objects made of graphene foam, a 3-D version of atomically thin graphene. At left is a photo of a fingertip-sized cube of graphene foam; at right is a close-up of the material as seen with a scanning electron microscope. (Image courtesy of Tour Group/Rice University)
2.3-D graphene foam objects are produced by shining a laser on a mixture of powdered sugar and nickel powder. The laser is moved back and forth to melt sugar in a 2-D pattern, and nickel acts as a catalyst to spur the growth of graphene foam. The process is repeated with successive layers of powder to build up 3-D objects. (Image courtesy of Tour Group/Rice University)

Nanotechnologists from Rice University and China’s Tianjin University have used 3D laser printing to fabricate centimete...