Category Technology/Electronics

ORNL’s Michael Manley led a study to discover the key to the success of modern materials used in ultrasound machines and other piezoelectric devices. At the ARCS instrument of the Spallation Neutron Source, he and colleagues studied lattice dynamics in relaxor-based ferroelectrics. Image credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy; photographer Genevieve Martin

The lighter wand for your gas BBQ, a submarine’s sonar device and the ultrasound machine at your doctor’s office all rely on piezoelectric materials, which turn mechanical stress into electrical energy, and vice versa. In 1997, researchers developed piezoelectric materials that were 10X better at coupling electrical and mechanical responses than prior state-of-the-art materials...

The thermal metamaterial represented in this graphic could make possible more efficient thermophotovoltaic devices that generate electricity from thermal radiation. Such a technology might be adapted to industrial pipes in factories and power plants, as well as on car engines and automotive exhaust systems, to recapture a portion of the energy wasted as heat. Credit: Purdue University image/Gabriela Sincich and Matthew Bollinger

An international team has used a “thermal metamaterial” to control the emission of radiation at high temperatures, an advance that could bring devices able to efficiently harvest waste heat from power plants and factories. Roughly 50 – 60% of the energy generated in coal and oil-based power plants is wasted as heat...

Regime of a single 1D wire subband filled. Credit: Dr Maria Moreno

Researchers have observed quantum effects in electrons by squeezing them into one-dimensional ‘quantum wires’ and observing the interactions between them. The results could be used to aid in the development of quantum technologies, including quantum computing. Squeezing electrons into a one-dimensional ‘quantum wire’ amplifies their quantum nature to the point that it can be seen, by measuring at what energy and wavelength (or momentum) electrons can be injected into the wire.

“…for electrons in a quantum wire – they repel each other and cannot get past, so if one electron enters or leaves, it excites a compressive wave like the people in the train,” trying to leave a carriage, said Maria Moreno, also from the Cavendish Lab...

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...