Technology Update
The simplicity of “bottom up” self-assembly has long vied with the extreme control of more painstaking “top down” lithography techniques for nanofabrication. Now the self-assembly of reproducible arrays of flat spirals—where even the chirality of the structures can be controlled by design—has demonstrated not just the impressive level of control that can be achieved using […]
A team of researchers in Israel has made a bipedal motor from DNA that can be controlled using a computer-based microfluidics-based interface. The molecular machine, which can “walk” on a DNA origami track in response to DNA fuel and anti-fuel strand commands, might find use in nanotechnology applications such as next-generation nanomachines and “nanofactories” for […]
Using a graphene nanoribbon suspended over a trench, a team of researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China has discovered a link between the nanomechanical motion and conductance through a single-electron transistor (SET). This nano-electromechanical system (NEMS) exploits a gold gating contact in the bottom of the trench that is used to […]
Researchers in France have made the first ultra-compact laser diode that can be integrated with silicon photonic waveguides without losing its light-emitting efficiency. The device, which works at the important telecommunications wavelength of 1.56 µm, could be used for constructing optical networks at the sub-millimetre scale for intra-chip optical interconnects and signal processing…… http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/68585 The […]
Graphene, a sheet of carbon just one atom thick, has a number of unique electronic properties, so it is ideal for fundamental studies in condensed matter physics and for making novel electronics and sensing devices. Researchers normally study the electron transport properties of graphene by measuring the material’s resistivity but this approach cannot make out […]
Thin diamond-like photonic nanostructures strongly reflect a surprisingly broad range of colours in all directions, whatever the angle of incident light. This is the new finding from physicists and mathematicians at the University of Twente in The Netherlands who have studied the reflectivity of cubic diamond-like “inverse woodpile” crystals using numerical calculations. The structures, based […]
When it comes to synthesis, biology invariably trumps man-made efforts. As a result there is great interest in “synthetic biology”, which aims for synthetic procedures that mimic the selectivity and efficiency of natural systems, largely by enrolling enzymes to expedite reactions. Researchers at the US Naval Research Laboratory have now shed light on how these […]
Cancer is a complex disease to treat, and yet the operating principle of many current treatments is to simply kill healthy cells a little slower than cancerous ones. In response, scientists at The University of Electronic Science and Technology of China have developed a sophisticated nanoparticle-based treatment. Their theranostic nanoparticles carry an anti-cancer drug cargo, […]
Quantum dots have revolutionized the field of optoelectronics due to their atom-like electronic structure. However, the prospect of colloidal quantum-dot lasers has long been deemed impractical due to the high energies required to induce optical gain. But recent work published in Nature and led by Ted Sargent of the University of Toronto shows that the […]
Semiconductor nanowire lasers are promising ultracompact light sources for miniaturized optical processing and sensing, but their efficiency is limited by the difficulty of confining light in a structure much smaller than its wavelength. By using a silicon photonic crystal to trap light in a semiconductor nanowire, researchers at NTT Basic Research Laboratories in Japan have […]
Sensors made from carbon nanotubes could offer a superior alternative to current activity tracking technology. Devices developed at the University of California, San Diego, are flexible enough to bend within layers of fabric, and can track specific types of motion as well as recording vital signs such as temperature and heart rate. These developments are […]
Membranes made from single-layer graphene oxide (SLGO) are promising as molecular sieve materials for purifying water. A team of researchers from the University of South Carolina in the US has now found that the spacing between the graphene oxide layers in a membrane is important for how well water permeates through it. It has also […]
Single-photon sources based on solid-state quantum emitters, capable of operating at room temperature, could be employed in on-chip quantum computing applications and as a source of “flying” quantum bits (qubits) for quantum communication. Producing such emitters at precisely pre-defined positions is no easy task, however. Now, a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) […]
Creating a new type of chip-sized optical microscope with high resolution capabilities is the challenge of ChipScope, a European project led by the University of Barcelona which counts with the participation of SMEs, universities and research institutes from five European countries………. http://nano-magazine.com/news/2017/4/7/a-chip-sized-ultra-resolution-microscope
Graphene-oxide membranes have attracted considerable attention as promising candidates for new filtration technologies. Now the much sought-after development of making membranes capable of sieving common salts has been achieved……… https://nano-magazine.com/news/2017/4/4/graphene-sieve-turns-seawater-into-drinking-water
US-based company, Nanobiosym has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorised use of their handheld diagnostic machines, the Gene-RADAR®, to identify Zika Virus. The fully portable, chip-based diagnostic platform can recognize Zika Virus RNA in just minutes, without the need for lab infrastructure, trained healthcare personnel, electricity or running water……… https://nano-magazine.com/news/2017/4/12/fda-authorises-emergency-zika-virus-test
Adding nanoparticles to the surface of tumour cells could make them more susceptible to treatment with particular cancer drugs, according to new research at MIT. The study showed that nanoparticles tethered to the cell surface can increase the effects of forces exerted on the tumour cells by physiological fluids flowing within the body, which makes […]
Macrophages are one of the main ports of entry for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1), but how the virus actually enters macrophages is still poorly understood. A team of researchers in China and the US have now made a new viral tracking tool by encapsulating HIV-1 in fluorescent quantum dots to observe how the virus […]
Immersion lenses (lenses that are immersed in a liquid, such as oil or water) can focus light into a spot size smaller than that possible in free space. Such devices are difficult to make, however, and often need to be hand polished for optimal performance. Now, a team of researchers at Harvard University in the […]
Soft biological tissue is almost completely transparent to short-wave infrared (SWIR) light but nanoscale probes emitting at these wavelengths that can be injected into the body are still lacking. A team of researchers in the US and Germany has now overcome this problem with a new class of SWIR-emitting indium-arsenide-based quantum dots. Thanks to their […]
Ferroelectric domain walls could be used as active elements for next-generation non-volatile memories, logic gates and energy-harvesting devices, but no real working nanodevices exploiting these nanostructures has been made to date. Researchers in Spain have now fabricated a multiferroic tunnel junction based on ferromagnetic La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 electrodes separated by an ultrathin ferroelectric BaTiO3 tunnel barrier that […]
