Jul 19, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Metamaterial interface waveguides can confine and guide electromagnetic (EM) waves, which has attractive potential in integrated photonics physics and wireless devices, from radio frequencies to optical bands. The energy flow in waveguides can be fully controlled by sorting the near-field light waves according to their...
Toward manufacturing semitransparent solar cells the size of windows
Jul 19, 2022 (Nanowerk News) In an important step toward bringing transparent solar cells to home windows, researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a way to manufacture their highly efficient and semitransparent solar cells. "In principle, we can now scale semitransparent organic solar cells to two meters by...
First atomic view of a quantum electronic device in operation
Jul 19, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Electronic circuits that compute and store information contain millions of tiny switches that control the flow of electric current. A deeper understanding of how these tiny switches work could help researchers push the frontiers of modern computing. Now scientists have made the first snapshots of...
Half-metal with zero magnetization successfully synthesized
Jul 19, 2022 (Nanowerk News) A research group has successfully synthesized a 'half-metal' material, achieving a rare feat in the pursuit of zero magnetization (Scientific Reports, "A new type of half‑metallic fully compensated ferrimagnet"). Half-metals can dramatically enhance the performance of electronic devices. This is due to their 100% spin-polarization,...
Solar power for space applications
Jul 19, 2022 (Nanowerk Spotlight) The systems that generate power for spacecrafts either in Earth orbit or for other solar system and deep space destinations belong to the critical components of every mission. Depending on the the electric power demand of the mission, several technologies can be used to obtain...
Highly transparent solar cell fabricated with 2D atomic sheet
Jul 19, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Solar panels often get a bad rap for spoiling the appearance of homes and businesses. Yet, this may be about to change. A research group has fabricated a highly transparent solar cell with a 2D atomic sheet (Scientific Reports, "Fabrication of near-invisible solar cell with...
‘Black hole police’ discover a dormant black hole outside our galaxy
Jul 18, 2022 (Nanowerk News) A team of international experts, renowned for debunking several black hole discoveries, have found a stellar-mass black hole in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighbour galaxy to our own (Nature Astronomy, "An X-ray quiet black hole born with a negligible kick in a massive binary...
Using graphene for same-time, same-position biomolecule isolation and sensing
Jul 18, 2022 (Nanowerk News) New research led by Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department assistant professor Jinglei Ping has overcome a major challenge to isolating and detecting molecules at the same time and at the same location in a microdevice. The work, recently published in ACS Nano ("Graphene-Enabled High-Performance Electrokinetic...
How ultrathin polymer films can be used for storage technology
Jul 18, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Precisely applied mechanical pressure can improve the electronic properties of a widely used polymer material. This requires that the material be mechanically processed to an accuracy of a few nanometres, a team from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) writes in the scientific journal Advanced Electronic...
A new look at disordered carbon
Jul 18, 2022 (Nanowerk News) When carbon atoms stack into a perfectly repeating three-dimensional crystal, they can form precious diamonds. Arranged another way, in repetitive flat sheets, carbon makes the shiny gray graphite found in pencils. But there are other forms of carbon that are less well understood. Amorphous carbon...