Dec 24, 2021 (Nanowerk News) An international team of researchers have used a unique tool inserted into an electron microscope to create a transistor that’s 25,000 smaller than the width of a human hair. The research, published in the journal Science ("Semiconductor nanochannels in metallic carbon nanotubes by thermomechanical chirality...
Carbon nanotube fibers stand strong
Dec 23, 2021 (Nanowerk News) Up here in the macro world, we all feel fatigue now and then. It’s the same for bundles of carbon nanotubes, no matter how perfect their individual components are. A Rice University study calculates how strains and stresses affect both “perfect” nanotubes and those assembled...
Novel semiconductor gives new perspective on Anomalous Hall Effect
Dec 23, 2021 (Nanowerk News) A large, unconventional anomalous Hall resistance in a new magnetic semiconductor in the absence of large-scale magnetic ordering has been demonstrated by Tokyo Tech materials scientists, validating a recent theoretical prediction. Their findings provide new insights into the anomalous Hall effect, a quantum phenomenon that...
Record-breaking hole mobility heralds a flexible future for electronics
Dec 23, 2021 (Nanowerk News) Technologists envisage an electronically interconnected future that will depend on cheap, lightweight, flexible devices. Efforts to optimize the semiconductor materials needed for these electronic devices are therefore necessary. Researchers from the University of Tsukuba have reported a record-breaking germanium (Ge) thin film on a plastic...
Tuning a magnetic fluid with an electric field creates controllable dissipative patterns
Dec 23, 2021 (Nanowerk News) Researchers at Aalto University have shown that a nanoparticle suspension can serve as a simple model for studying the formation of patterns and structures in more complicated non-equilibrium systems, such as living cells (Science Advances, "Electroferrofluids with nonequilibrium voltage-controlled magnetism, diffuse interfaces, and patterns"). The...
Quantum marbles in a bowl of light
Dec 23, 2021 (Nanowerk News) Which factors determine how fast a quantum computer can perform its calculations? Physicists at the University of Bonn and the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology have devised an elegant experiment to answer this question. The results of the study are published in the journal...
What makes an mRNA vaccine so effective against severe COVID-19?
Dec 23, 2021 (Nanowerk News) The first two vaccines created with mRNA vaccine technology — the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines — are arguably two of the most effective COVID vaccines developed to date (read more: The revolutionary power of bio platforms – or why it took just 48 hours...
‘Pop-up’ electronic sensors could detect when individual heart cells misbehave
Dec 23, 2021 (Nanowerk News) Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a powerful new tool that monitors the electrical activity inside heart cells, using tiny “pop-up” sensors that poke into cells without damaging them. The device directly measures the movement and speed of electrical signals traveling...
Using magnets to toggle nanolasers leads to better photonics
Dec 23, 2021 (Nanowerk News) A magnetic field can be used to switch nanolasers on and off, shows new research from Aalto University. The physics underlying this discovery paves the way for the development of optical signals that cannot be disturbed by external disruptions, leading to unprecedented robustness in signal...
Fueling the future with new perovskite-related oxide-ion conductors
Dec 23, 2021 (Nanowerk News) The ever-increasing demand for clean energy and high-performance devices in the modern technological era has called for the development of alternate energy materials. In particular, oxide-ion conductors have garnered a lot of attention on this front. The presence of highly mobile oxide ions in their...