Apr 06, 2026 Confined molecules inside carbon nanotubes polarize under gate voltage, creating transistors with three stable logic states from a single material system. (Nanowerk Spotlight) Squeeze a molecule into a space barely wider than itself, and its properties change. Bond angles shift, the electron cloud redistributes, and the molecule...
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Astronomers thought the early universe was full of hydrogen. Now they’ve found it
Apr 06, 2026 A new study has now increased the known number of hydrogen gas halos by a factor of ten: from roughly 3,000 to over 33,000. (Nanowerk News) Astronomers using data from the Hobby–Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) have discovered tens of thousands of gigantic hydrogen gas halos,...
Researchers reach the absolute limit of stillness for a nanoscale rotor
Apr 06, 2026 Researchers cool a levitated silica nanorotor to its librational quantum ground state in two rotational degrees of freedom simultaneously, reaching the fundamental limit set by quantum uncertainty. (Nanowerk News) Quantum mechanics tells us that a particle can never be perfectly still. But how precisely can it be...
Structural color can now be printed with an inkjet printer
Apr 06, 2026 Non-fading and non-toxic structural color can now be applied to flat or 3D surfaces using an inkjet printer. This development also opens possibilities for novel display and anti-counterfeiting technologies. (Nanowerk News) While traditional printer pigments fade and most structural color can’t be printed, the Kobe University material...
Diamond nanocoatings make single-use Raman sensors reusable in harsh environments
Apr 04, 2026 A thin diamond film encapsulates gold nanoparticles into a reusable SERS substrate that survives acid, abrasion, and months of storage without losing sensitivity. (Nanowerk Spotlight) Every molecule scatters light in a slightly different way, and Raman spectroscopy reads those differences like a chemical barcode. The technique is...
Electrons in moire crystals explore higher-dimensional quantum worlds
Apr 04, 2026 Physicists have discovered 3D 'moire crystals' that simulate four-dimensional quantum materials to a T. (Nanowerk News) The electrons that power our society flow left and right through the circuitry in our electronics, back and forth along the transmission lines that make up our power grid, and up...
‘Perfectly symmetrical’ 2D perovskites boost energy transport
Apr 04, 2026 Symmetrical 2D perovskites enable long-range energy transport, overcoming key limits in charge mobility and opening new paths for efficient optoelectronic devices. (Nanowerk News) Rice University scientists and collaborators have created a new type of two-dimensional (2D) semiconductor that comes closer than ever to a “perfect” crystal. The...
High-efficiency microwave photon detector enables next-gen quantum tech
Apr 04, 2026 Researchers have built a device that detects individual microwave photons with up to 70 percent efficiency, operating continuously and without complex reset steps. (Nanowerk News) Detecting a single particle of light is hard; detecting a single microwave photon is even harder. Microwave photons, the tiny packets of...
Preview tool helps makers visualize 3D-printed objects
Apr 04, 2026 By quickly generating aesthetically accurate previews of fabricated objects, the VisiPrint system could make prototyping faster and less wasteful. (Nanowerk News) Designers, makers, and others often use 3D printing to rapidly prototype a range of functional objects, from movie props to medical devices. Accurate print previews are...
How a single atom controls heat transport for next-gen nanoelectronics
Apr 03, 2026 Scientists show how a single atom can precisely control heat flow in molecules, opening new paths for efficient nanoelectronics and advanced thermal management systems. (Nanowerk News) In close collaboration with researchers from the University of Michigan (USA), physicists in Augsburg have succeeded for the first time in...