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Category: materials – Page 6

Research examines how ripples affect nanoscopic materials

When materials are created on a nanometer scale — just a handful of atoms thick — even the thermal energy present at room temperature can cause structural ripples. How these ripples affect the mechanical properties of these thin materials can limit their use in electronics and other key systems.

New research validates theoretical models about how elasticity is scale-dependent — in other words, the elastic properties of a material are not constant, but vary with the size of the piece of material.

Assistant Professor Jian Zhou, PhD ’18, collaborated with researchers from Argonne National Laboratory, Harvard University, Princeton University and Penn State University for a recently published paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Using a semiconductor manufacturing process, the team created alumina structures 28 nanometers thick (more than 1,000 times thinner than the diameter of a human hair) on the silicon wafer with thermal-like static ripples, then tested them with lasers to measure their behavior. To remove possible stress to the material that could affect the results, cantilevers held the wafers during testing.

Understanding how thin materials behave is key to electronics and other technology.

Melanin-like nanofibers with highly ordered structures achieve ultrahigh specific electromagnetic interference shielding efficiency

Lightweight electromagnetic shielding materials are of interest, though it is challenging to balance performance and processability with conventional materials. Here, the authors report, an ordered melanin-like polymer, using π–π stacking, for a microwave shielding material.

New carbon material sharpens proton beams, potentially boosting cancer treatment precision

Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed a groundbreaking carbon membrane that could revolutionise proton therapy for cancer patients, and advance technologies in medicine and other areas such as energy devices and flexible electronics.

The new carbon material which is just a single atom thick shows incredible promise in enabling high-precision proton beams. Such beams are key to safer and more accurate proton therapy for cancer treatment. The new material, called the ultra-clean monolayer amorphous carbon (UC-MAC), could outperform best in class materials like graphene or commercial carbon films.

The research was led by Associate Professor Lu Jiong and his team from the NUS Department of Chemistry, in collaboration with international partners.

Scientists design superdiamonds with theoretically predicted hexagonal crystal structure

The brilliantly shiny diamond is more than just pretty; it’s one of the hardest minerals on Earth, with a name derived from the Greek word adámas, meaning unbreakable. Scientists have now engineered a harder form of diamond known as bulk hexagonal diamond (HD)—a crystalline structure that has been theorized for over half a century to have physical properties superior to those of conventional diamond.

In a study published in Nature, researchers from China synthesized bulk hexagonal diamond, ranging from 100-µm-sized to mm-sized, with a highly ordered structure by compressing and heating high-quality graphite under pressure conditions as uniform as possible.

The designed material, which was recoverable under ambient conditions, unveiled the previously elusive structural world of HD, opening new avenues for exploring its potential as a technologically superior material.

Physicists Harness Light To Control Semiconductors in Trillionths of a Second

A peer-reviewed study reports the development of ultrafast modulation technology in nanoelectronics. Physicists from Bielefeld University and the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden (IFW Dresden) have introduced a new technique that uses ultrashort light pulses to manip

New MIT Device Could Be Key to Faster, More Energy-Efficient Computing and Communications

Solves major problems associated with integrating electronics, photonics in microchip systems.

The MIT device in the green callout could be key to faster, more energy-efficient data communication. It solves a major problem associated with packaging an electrical chip (black, center) with photonic chips (the eight surrounding squares). This image also shows an automated tool placing the final photonic chip into position. Image courtesy Drew Weninger, MIT.

The future of digital computing and communications will involve both electronics—manipulating data with electricity—and photonics, or doing the same with light. Together the two could allow exponentially more data traffic across the globe in a process that is also more energy efficient.

“The bottom line is that integrating photonics with electronics in the same package is the transistor for the 21st century. If we can’t figure out how to do that, then we’re not going to be able to scale forward,” says Lionel Kimerling, the Thomas Lord Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT and director of the MIT Microphotonics Center.

Enter FUTUR-IC, a new research team based at MIT and funded by the National Science Foundation’s Convergence Accelerator through a cooperative agreement. “Our goal is to build a microchip industry value chain that is resource-efficient,” says Anu Agarwal, head of FUTUR-IC and a principal research scientist at the Materials Research Laboratory (MRL).

Shroud of Turin image matches low-relief statue—not human body, 3D modeling study finds

The Shroud of Turin is a famous artifact with obscure origins. How and when it was made has long been the subject of debate among many scientists, historians and religious leaders, alike. The two most prominent theories are that it was either created as a work of art during the medieval period or that it was a piece of linen that was actually wrapped around the body of Jesus Christ after his death over 2000 years ago.

Radiocarbon dating done in a 1989 study on the Shroud of Turin dated it around 1,260 to 1,390 AD, consistent with the medieval theory. Later, in 2005, Raymond Rogers argued that the tested sample from the came from an area that had been repaired, and was thus newer than the original cloth. And more recently, in 2022, a single thread from the shroud material was tested with a new—and somewhat controversial—method based on Wide Angle X-ray Scattering (WAXS), which claimed that the shroud dated back to the first century AD. If those results are reliable, this dates the cloth much closer to the time of Jesus.

Yet another study examined the blood patterns on the shroud and deemed them inconsistent with what would be expected with a deceased man lying flat. In fact, the authors stated that these blood patterns were “totally unrealistic.” This led to the idea that the blood might have been added to the shroud in a more artistic manner after its creation.

First-Ever Penis and Scrotum Transplant Makes History at Johns Hopkins

Surgeons at The Johns Hopkins Hospital have performed the world’s first total penis and scrotum transplant.

The patient suffered a devastating injury several years ago from an improvised explosive device while serving in Afghanistan. He is now recovering at the hospital after the 14-hour procedure in late March, which repaired his abdominal wall, gave him a new scrotum and attached a donor penis.

“We are optimistic he will regain near-normal urinary and sexual functions,” said W. P. Andrew Lee, director of plastic and reconstructive surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

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