https://phys.org/nanotech-news/nano-physics en-us The latest science news on nanophysics, nanotechnology, nanotech and nanoscience. Evaporation is a natural process so ubiquitous that most of us take it for granted. In fact, roughly half of the solar energy that reaches the Earth drives evaporative processes. Since 2017, researchers have been working to harness the energy potential of evaporation via the hydrovoltaic (HV) effect, which allows electricity to be harvested when fluid is passed over the charged surface of a nanoscale device. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-nanodevices-energy-evaporating-seawater.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Wed, 06 Mar 2024 12:28:55 EST news628950532 In a new Nature Communications study, Columbia Engineering researchers report that they have built highly conductive, tunable single-molecule devices in which the molecule is attached to leads by using direct metal-metal contacts. Their novel approach uses light to control the electronic properties of the devices and opens the door to broader use of metal-metal contacts that could facilitate electron transport across the single-molecule device. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-precisely-molecule-devices.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Tue, 05 Mar 2024 13:13:03 EST news628866781 Credit cards embedded chips, national mints printed watermarks, and high-profile locations installed retina scanners all for the same reason—to protect information. As attackers grow smarter, so must defense. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-micro-mirage-fabricate-world-smallest.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Mon, 04 Mar 2024 11:51:10 EST news628775468 The most popular words of 2023 were recently released, with AI Large Language Model (LLM) unquestionably topping the list. As a front-runner, ChatGPT also emerged as one of the international buzzwords of the year. These disruptive innovations in AI owe much to big data, which has played a pivotal role. Yet, AI has simultaneously presented new opportunities and challenges to the development of big data. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-3d-nanoscale-optical-disk-memory.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Sat, 02 Mar 2024 09:00:01 EST news628164032 Quantum materials have generated considerable interest for computing applications in the past several decades, but non-trivial quantum properties—like superconductivity or magnetic spin—remain in fragile states. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-class-2d-material-displays-stable.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Fri, 01 Mar 2024 12:00:14 EST news628516812 A team of NUS researchers led by Associate Professor Lu Jiong from the Department of Chemistry and Institute for Functional Intelligent Materials, together with their international collaborators, have developed a novel concept of a chemist-intuited atomic robotic probe (CARP). https://phys.org/news/2024-03-quantum-materials-precision-ai.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Fri, 01 Mar 2024 07:58:04 EST news628502281 "Opposites charges attract; like charges repel" is a fundamental principle of basic physics. But a new study from Oxford University, published today in Nature Nanotechnology, has demonstrated that similarly charged particles in solution can in fact attract each other over long distances. Just as surprisingly, the team found that the effect is different for positively and negatively charged particles, depending on the solvent. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-opposites-particles.html Nanophysics Fri, 01 Mar 2024 05:00:01 EST news628447294 A small combined team of material scientists from Sun Yat-sen University and Dalian University of Technology, both in China, has found that it is possible to make a single drop of water hop in desired ways by putting a magnetic particle inside of it and turning an electromagnet on and off. The research published in the journal ACS Nano. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-magnetizing.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Thu, 29 Feb 2024 09:29:39 EST news628421373 The sunlight received by Earth is a mixed bag of wavelengths ranging from ultraviolet to visible to infrared. Each wavelength carries inherent energy that, if effectively harnessed, holds great potential to facilitate solar hydrogen production and diminish reliance on non-renewable energy sources. Nonetheless, existing solar hydrogen production technologies face limitations in absorbing light across this broad spectrum, particularly failing to harness the potential of near infrared (NIR) light energy that reaches Earth. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-nanocrystals-hydrogen-production-visible-infrared.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Tue, 27 Feb 2024 11:44:41 EST news628256678 Hafnium oxide thin films are a fascinating class of materials with robust ferroelectric properties in the nanometer range. While the ferroelectric behavior is extensively studied, results on piezoelectric effects have so far remained mysterious. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-unconventional-piezoelectricity-ferroelectric-hafnia.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Tue, 27 Feb 2024 11:03:03 EST news628254182 Imagine technology as a race car speeding down a track—it can only go as fast as its engine allows. But just when it seemed like organic solar cells hit a roadblock, along comes 3PNIN, a game-changing molecule shaped like a propeller, ready to turbocharge their progress and break through barriers. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-alternate-propeller-isomer-solar-cells.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Tue, 27 Feb 2024 10:24:03 EST news628251842 A material coating, whose light refraction properties can be precisely switched between different states, has been developed by an interdisciplinary research team from the Chemistry and Physics departments at the University of Jena. The team, led by Felix Schacher, Sarah Walden, Purushottam Poudel, and Isabelle Staude, combined polymers that react to light with so-called metasurfaces. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-polymer-based-tunable-optical-components.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Fri, 23 Feb 2024 10:47:40 EST news627907657 Experimental computer memories and processors built from magnetic materials use far less energy than traditional silicon-based devices. Two-dimensional magnetic materials, composed of layers that are only a few atoms thick, have incredible properties that could allow magnetic-based devices to achieve unprecedented speed, efficiency, and scalability. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-harness-2d-magnetic-materials-energy.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Thu, 22 Feb 2024 08:42:06 EST news627813723 Recently, a research team from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) has employed metasurfaces to fabricate angle-dependent holograms with multiple functions. This technology allows holograms to display multiple images based on the observer's viewing angle. The findings were published in Nano Letters. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-angle-holograms-metasurfaces.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Wed, 21 Feb 2024 12:53:38 EST news627742416 Membranes of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VaCNT) can be used to clean or desalinate water at high flow rate and low pressure. Recently, researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and partners carried out steroid hormone adsorption experiments to study the interplay of forces in the small pores. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-membrane-technology-deep-smallest-pores.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Wed, 21 Feb 2024 09:53:03 EST news627731581 Recent research has broken the size limitation of traditional ferroelectric effects, providing experimental evidence and theoretical simulations to confirm that a structure with as few as 5,000 atoms can still exhibit solid-state ferroelectric effects. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-atoms-smallest-solid-state-ferroelectricity.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Fri, 16 Feb 2024 12:38:22 EST news627309495 New research, conducted at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, illuminates the strange behavior of gold when zapped with high-energy laser pulses. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-capture-strange-behavior-laser-gold.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Thu, 15 Feb 2024 15:40:04 EST news627234002 The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), in collaboration with Kansas State University, has discovered slab waveguides based on the two-dimensional material hexagonal boron nitride. This milestone has been reported in the journal Advanced Materials. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-team-dimensional-waveguides.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Thu, 15 Feb 2024 14:24:04 EST news627229441 Researchers at Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) have developed an innovative method to simultaneously track rapid dynamic processes of multiple molecules at the molecular scale. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-microscopy-method-traditional-resolution-limit.html Bio & Medicine Nanophysics Wed, 14 Feb 2024 10:24:38 EST news627128674 In nature, the collective motion of some birds and fish, such as flocks of starlings and shoals of sardines, respectively, can generate impressive dynamic phenomena. Their study constitutes active matter science, which has been a topic of great interest for the past three decades. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-scientists-behaviors-chiral-skyrmions-obstacles.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Tue, 13 Feb 2024 10:52:42 EST news627043959 A recent study has unveiled a significant advancement toward the on-chip integration of single-photon sources at room temperature. This achievement represents a significant step forward in the field of quantum photonics and holds promise for various applications, including quantum computing, cryptography, and sensing. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-breakthrough-photon-quantum-cryptography.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Mon, 12 Feb 2024 13:18:27 EST news626966305 A TU/e and Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology-led collaboration involving researchers from around the world has the answer, and the why, and the results have been published in the journal Science Advances. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-electron-phonon-graphene-sandwich.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Mon, 12 Feb 2024 10:26:18 EST news626955973 Researchers led by Cornell have discovered an unusual phenomenon in a metal-insulating material, providing valuable insights for the design of materials with new properties by way of faster switching between states of matter. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-physics-insulating-material-path-faster.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Fri, 09 Feb 2024 11:50:50 EST news626701835 Traditional microelectronic architectures, with transistors to control electrical currents along wires, power everything from advanced computers to everyday devices. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-harnessing-powered-nanoscale-electrical-currents.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Thu, 08 Feb 2024 09:21:03 EST news626606461 Semiconductor 2D materials are a few atoms thick, and some of them exhibit localized emission, where light is emitted from such a small part of the layer that only one photon at a time is produced. This localized emission has unique properties and is vital to new quantum technologies, especially in optoelectronic and quantum device applications. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-advanced-unravel-nanoscale-phenomena-tungsten.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Wed, 07 Feb 2024 11:03:14 EST news626526192 By attaching molecules together, scientists at Université de Montréal think they've found how molecular systems at the origin of life evolved to create complex self-regulating functions. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-molecular-life-evolved-nanomachines.html Bio & Medicine Nanophysics Wed, 07 Feb 2024 10:16:03 EST news626523360 Applications such as LIDAR, 3D imaging for mobile devices, automotive and augmented/virtual reality or night vision for surveillance, rely on the development of short-wave infrared (SWIR) photodetectors. These devices are capable of seeing in the region of the spectrum that is invisible to our eye since they operate in the spectral window of 1-2 µm. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-environmentally-friendly-insbinp-colloidal-quantum.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Wed, 07 Feb 2024 09:33:12 EST news626520787 Research led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Marti Checa and Liam Collins has pioneered a groundbreaking approach, described in the journal Nature Communications, toward understanding the behavior of an electric charge at the microscopic level. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-deciphering-deep-dynamics-electric.html Nanophysics Tue, 06 Feb 2024 11:10:07 EST news626440202 In a significant leap forward for quantum nanophotonics, a team of European and Israeli physicists has introduced a new type of polaritonic cavities and redefined the limits of light confinement. This pioneering work, detailed in a study published in Nature Materials, demonstrates an unconventional method to confine photons, overcoming the traditional limitations in nanophotonics. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-boundaries-quantum-photonics-nanocavities-frontiers.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Tue, 06 Feb 2024 05:00:01 EST news626370114 Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have discovered that adding a layer of magnesium improves the properties of tantalum, a superconducting material that shows great promise for building qubits, the basis of quantum computers. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-magnesium-tantalum-material-qubits.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Mon, 05 Feb 2024 15:19:07 EST news626368741