Seeing silicon crystal transform to amorphous at the atomic scale

Scientists have observed at atomic scale a previously unknown mechanism of shear-driven crystal to amorphously transform in silicon.

Graphene nanoribbons show promise for healing spinal injuries

The combination of graphene nanoribbons and a common polymer could someday be of critical importance to healing damaged spinal cords in people.

Nanoscale Canadian flag sets world record in lead-up to nation's 150th birthday

The Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo set a world record for creating a Canadian flag measuring about one one-hundredth the width of a human hair.

Cleaning concrete contaminated with chemicals

A research project uses computer simulations to examine how chemical agents soak into and bind within concrete.

Atom art: Beauty at the atomic scale

Nature makes some beautiful patterns with atoms.

Nucleon interactions key to quantum phase transition

Research sheds new light on the ways in which protons and neutrons can bind and even undergo a quantum phase transition. The work has implications for understanding the connections between nuclear interactions and nuclear structure found in nature.

Diamond proves useful material for growing graphene

Material scientists have developed a method to grow graphene that contains relatively few impurities and costs less to make, in a shorter time and at lower temperatures compared to the processes widely used to make graphene today.

Nickel graphene nanocomposite can be tuned for optimal fracture strength

Engineering researchers found that nanocomposites composed of layers of nickel and graphene can be tuned for optimal fracture strength by manipulating the structural arrangement of the graphene sheets.

Towards stable propagation of light in nanophotonic fibers

Devices based on light, rather than electrons, could revolutionize the speed and security of our future computers. However, one of the major challenges in today's physics is the design of photonic devices, able to transport and switch light through circuits in a stable way. Researchers now have studied how to achieve a more stable propagation of light for future optical technologies.

The PHENOMEN project aims to lay the foundations a new information technology

The project PHENOMEN is at the intersection of photonics, radio frequency signal processing and phononics and proposes to build the first practical optically-driven phonon sources and detectors.