PHENOMEN project to lay the foundations for a new age of information processing

PHENOMEN is a ground-breaking project that will combine advances in photonics, mechanics and electronics to develop the first optically-driven phonon sources and detectors, all at the nanoscale.

Pioneering nanotechnology captures energy from people (w/video)

On the path toward wearable devices powered by human motion.

Electron highway inside crystal

Physicists have made an astonishing discovery in a specific type of topological insulators. The effect is due to the structure of the materials used.

A nano-roundabout for light

Just like in normal road traffic, crossings are indispensable in optical signal processing. In order to avoid collisions, a clear traffic rule is required. A new method has now been developed by researchers to provide such a rule for light signals.

Researchers use graphene to make state of the art sensors from silly putty

Researchers have used graphene to make the novelty children?s material silly putty (polysilicone) conduct electricity, creating extremely sensitive sensors. This research potentially offers exciting possibilities for applications in new, inexpensive devices and diagnostics in medicine and other sectors.

Researchers peer into atom-sized tunnels in hunt for better battery

Battery researchers seeking improved electrode materials have focused on 'tunneled' structures that make it easier for charge-carrying ions to move in and out of the electrode. Now a team has used a special electron microscope with atomic-level resolution to show that certain large ions can hold the tunnels open so that the charge-carrying ions can enter and exit the electrode easily and quickly.

Chemical trickery corrals 'hyperactive' metal-oxide cluster

After decades of eluding researchers because of chemical instability, key metal-oxide clusters have been isolated in water, a significant advance for growing the clusters with the impeccable control over atoms that's required to manufacture small features in electronic circuits.