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    Category Technology/Electronics

    Computers made of Genetic Material? Researchers Conduct Electricity using DNA-based Nanowires

    November 9, 2016, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics, Biology/Biotechnology

    Scientists at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf conducted electricity through DNA-based nanowires by placing gold-plated nanoparticles on them. In this way it could become possible to develop circuits based on genetic material. Credit: Image courtesy of Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf

    Scientists at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf conducted electricity through DNA-based nanowires by placing gold-plated nanoparticles on them. In this way it could become possible to develop circuits based on genetic material. Credit: Image courtesy of Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf

    Tinier than the AIDS virus—that is currently the circumference of the smallest transistors. The industry has shrunk the central elements of their computer chips to 14nm in the last 60 years. Conventional methods, however, are hitting physical boundaries. Researchers around the world are looking for alternatives. One method could be the self-organization of complex components from molecules and atoms...

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    Close to Absolute Zero, Electrons exhibit their Quantum Nature

    November 8, 2016, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    Keeping a close eye on everything: Christian Ast checks the connections of the scanning tunneling microscope (top). Researchers in the Nanoscale Science Department conduct their experiments in this instrument at lowest temperatures of a fifteen thousandth of a degree above absolute zero. The principle is always the same (bottom): A tunneling current (illustrated by the transparent bar) flows between an ultrafine tip and the sample, providing information about the properties of the sample. At these low temperatures the tunneling current reveals all of its quantum properties.

    Keeping a close eye on everything: Christian Ast checks the connections of the scanning tunneling microscope (top). Researchers in the Nanoscale Science Department conduct their experiments in this instrument at lowest temperatures of a fifteen thousandth of a degree above absolute zero. The principle is always the same (bottom): A tunneling current (illustrated by the transparent bar) flows between an ultrafine tip and the sample, providing information about the properties of the sample. At these low temperatures the tunneling current reveals all of its quantum properties. Credit: Tom Pingel (top), MPI for Solid State Research (bottom)

    What would happen if an electric current no longer flowed, but trickled instead? This was the question investigated by researchers working with Christian ...

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    Major Advance in Solar Cells made from Cheap, Easy-to-use Perovskite

    November 8, 2016, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics, Chemistry/Nanotechnology

    Major advance in solar cells made from cheap, easy-to-use perovskite

    This first version of a new layered perovskite solar cell already achieves an efficiency of more than 20 percent, rivaling many commercial solar cells. Flexible and easy to make, it can produce more than half a volt of electricity. Credit: Onur Ergen, UC Berkeley

    Solar cells made from an inexpensive and increasingly popular material called perovskite can more efficiently turn sunlight into electricity using a new technique to sandwich 2 types of perovskite into a single photovoltaic cell. Perovskite solar cells are made of a mix of organic molecules and inorganic elements that together capture light and convert it into electricity, just like today’s more common silicon-based solar cells...

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    Lasers + Anti-lasers: Marriage opens door to Development of Single Device with Exceptional Optical Capabilities

    November 7, 2016, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    Schematics above show light input (green) entering opposite ends of a single device. When the phase of light input 1 is faster than that of input 2 (left panel), the gain medium dominates, resulting in coherent amplification of the light, or a lasing mode. When the phase of light input 1 is slower than input 2 (right panel), the loss medium dominates, leading to coherent absorption of the input light beams, or an anti-lasing mode. (Credit: Zi Jing Wong/UC Berkeley)

    Scanning electron microscope image of the single device capable of lasing and anti-lasing. Indium gallium arsenide phosphide (InGaAsP) material functions as the gain medium, while the chromium (Cr) and germanium (Ge) structures introduce the right amount of loss to satisfy the condition of parity-time symmetry that is required for lasing and anti-lasing. (Credit: Zi Jing Wong/UC Berkeley)(From left) Berkeley researchers Xiang Zhang, Zi Jing Wong, Jeongmin Kim and Yuan Wang stand next to the optical setup they designed to demonstrate both lasing and anti-lasing in a single device. (Credit: Marilyn Chung/Berkeley Lab)

    1. Schematics above show light input (green) entering opposite ends of a single device. When the phase of light input 1 is faster than that of input 2 (left panel), the gain medium dominates, resulting in coherent amplification of the light, or a lasing mode. When the phase of light input 1 is slower than input 2 (right panel), the loss medium dominates, leading to coherent absorption of the input light beams, or an anti-lasing mode. (Credit: Zi Jing Wong/UC Berkeley)
    2. Scanning electron microscope image of the single device capable of lasing and anti-lasing...
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