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Category: nanotechnology – Page 4

New nanomagnet production process improves efficiency and cuts costs

Researchers at HZDR have partnered with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, and the Institute of Nuclear Physics in the Polish Academy of Sciences to develop a method that facilitates the manufacture of particularly efficient magnetic nanomaterials in a relatively simple process based on inexpensive raw materials.

Using a highly focused ion beam, they imprint magnetic nanostrips consisting of tiny, vertically aligned nanomagnets onto the materials. As the researchers have reported in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, this geometry makes the material highly sensitive to external magnetic fields and current pulses.

Nanomagnets play a key role in modern information technologies. They facilitate fast data storage, precise magnetic sensors, novel developments in spintronics, and, in the future, quantum computing. The foundations of all these applications are functional materials with particular magnetic structures that can be customized on the nanoscale and precisely controlled.

Surprising nanoscopic heat traps found in diamonds

Diamond is famous in material science for being the best natural heat conductor on Earth—but new research reveals that, at the atomic scale, it can briefly trap heat in unexpected ways. The findings could influence how scientists design diamond-based quantum technologies, including ultra-precise sensors and future quantum computers.

In a study published in Physical Review Letters, researchers from the University of Warwick and collaborators showed that when certain molecular-scale defects in diamond are excited with light, they create tiny, short-lived “hot spots” that momentarily distort the surrounding crystal. These distortions last only a few trillionths of a second but are long enough to affect the behavior of quantum-relevant defects.

“Finding a hot ground state for a molecular-scale defect in diamond was extremely surprising for us,” explained Professor James Lloyd-Hughes, Department of Physics, University of Warwick. “Diamond is the best thermal conductor, so one would expect energy transport to prevent any such effect. However, at the nanoscale, some phonons—packets of vibrational energy—hang around near the defect, creating a miniature hot environment that pushes on the defect itself.”

The “impossible” LED breakthrough that changes everything

Scientists have unveiled a technique that uses ‘molecular antennas’ to direct electrical energy into insulating nanoparticles. This approach creates a new family of ultra-pure near-infrared LEDs that could be used in medical diagnostics, optical communication systems, and sensitive detectors.

Researchers at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge have discovered how to drive electrical current into materials that normally do not conduct, a feat previously thought impossible under normal conditions. By attaching carefully chosen organic molecules that act like tiny antennas, they have built the first light-emitting diodes (LEDs) from insulating nanoparticles. Their work, reported in Nature, points toward a new generation of devices for deep-tissue biomedical imaging and high-speed data transmission.

Observing ultrafast magnetic domain changes at the nanoscale with soft X-rays

Scientists at the Max Born Institute have developed a new soft X-ray instrument that can reveal dynamics of magnetic domains on nanometer length and picosecond time scales. By bringing capabilities once exclusive to X-ray free-electron lasers into the laboratory, the work paves the way for routine investigations of ultrafast processes of emergent textures in magnetic materials and beyond.

A dropped fridge magnet offers a simple glimpse into a complex physical phenomenon: although it appears undamaged on the outside, its holding force can weaken because its internal magnetic structure has reorganized into countless tiny regions with opposing magnetization, so-called magnetic domains.

These nanoscale textures are central to modern magnetism research, but observing them at very short time scales has long required access to large-scale X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) facilities.

Nanowires: a new pathway to nanotechnology-based applications

The synthesis and the characterisation of silicon nanowires (SiNWs) have recently attracted great attention due to their potential applications in electronics and photonics. As yet, there are no practical uses of nanowires, except for research purposes, but certain properties and characteristics of nanowires look very promising for the future.

How Nanowires Work

In the next section, we’ll look at the ways scientists can grow nanowires from the bottom up.

Looking at the Nanoscale.

A nanoscientist’s microscope isn’t the same kind that you’ll find in a high school chemistry lab. When you get down to the atomic scale, you’re dealing with sizes that are actually smaller than the wavelength of visible light. Instead, a nanoscientist could use a scanning tunneling microscope or an atomic force microscope. Scanning tunneling microscopes use a weak electric current to probe the scanned material. Atomic force microscopes scan surfaces with an incredibly fine tip. Both microscopes send data to a computer, which assembles the information and projects it graphically onto a monitor.

Phages Carrying Silver Nanoparticles Could Combat Antibiotic Resistance

In a recent study, Bagchi and her colleagues discovered that together, silver nanoparticles scaffolded onto phages killed bacteria more potently than either component alone.

This suggests that the conjugates may be a new, promising weapon in the fight against antibiotic resistance.

Read more: https://bit.ly/3KKm5D4

In a recent study, researchers wanted to “take advantage of both worlds,” said Damayanti Bagchi, a material chemist who led the work as a postdoctoral researcher in Irene Chen’s laboratory at the University of California, Los Angeles.1 For the first time, Bagchi and her colleagues synthesized silver nanoparticles using phages called M13, which they also used as a scaffold for the nanoparticles. The silver particle and M13 phage conjugate killed bacteria more effectively than each component alone. The conjugate also slowed down the development of bacterial resistance. This work, published in Langmuir, expands researchers’ arsenal of weapons in their fight against antibiotic resistance.

“This is quite new, using phages as scaffolds [for silver nanoparticles]. I find it very exciting,” said Timea Fernandez, a biochemist at Winthrop University who was not involved in the study.

Argon ion treatment increases carbon nanowall electrode capacitance fivefold

Researchers from Skoltech, MIPT, and the RAS Institute of Nanotechnology of Microelectronics have achieved a five-fold increase in the capacitance of carbon nanowalls, a material used in the electrodes of supercapacitors. These are auxiliary energy storage devices used in conjunction with conventional accumulators in electric cars, trains, port cranes, and other systems.

A key characteristic of these devices, the capacitance of carbon nanowalls could be enhanced by treatment with an optimal dose of high-energy argon ions. The research is published in Scientific Reports.

Chameleon-like nanomaterial can adapt its color to mechanical strain

Inspired by the Japanese art of kirigami, a team of scientists from the University of Amsterdam have developed a material that can reflect different colors of light, depending on how it is stretched. The results were recently published in the journal ACS Photonics.

Similar to its perhaps better-known cousin origami—the Japanese art of folding paper—kirigami is an art form in which paper is both folded and cut. The jaw-dropping three-dimensional designs that kirigami artists create, inspired a team of physicists from the University of Amsterdam to design an equally spectacular type of material: one that smoothly changes its color when it is stretched.

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