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By carefully controlling the heat capacity and other thermal properties of a superconducting hot-electron nanobolometer, researchers have built a device that is sufficiently sensitive to detect single terahertz photons, making it suitable for use in a future space-based terahertz telescope.
Scanning photocurrent microscopy has revealed that metal contacts lead to potential steps that act as transport barriers in graphene devices. The formation of p-type conducting edges surrounding a central n-type channel has also been observed at low carrier densities.
The electrical, optical and mechanical properties of nanowires depend on their morphology. Nanowires that possess both chirality and a branched structure may therefore possess new material properties. Such nanowires can be formed by vapour–liquid–solid branching from a central PbSe nanowire with an axial screw dislocation.
Scanning near-field ultrasonic holography has been used to probe inside cells taken from the lungs of mice that had been exposed to carbon nanohorns, and provides evidence that these particles can enter the cells. The ability to detect nanoparticles below the cell surface could make this technique useful for studying toxicity of nanomaterials.
DNA tiles can be used as a platform to display two different aptamers — short sequences of nucleotides that bind to proteins — with high spatial control, to systematically study the distance dependence of multivalent interactions.
Ferroelectric oxides have emerged as candidate materials for non-volatile data-storage applications, but they can be difficult to process. Researchers have now used a high-temperature deposition process to fabricate arrays of metal–ferroelectric–metal nanocapacitors with a density of 176 gigabits per square inch.
On the basis of first-principles computer simulations, theorists have predicted that zigzag graphene nanoribbons should display magnetoresistance values that are thousands of times higher than previously reported experimental values, and also should be able to generate highly spin-polarized currents.
A lithographic method using a scanning tunnelling microscope can etch graphene nanoribbons in graphite sheets with nanometre precision. The electronic properties of these ribbons can be engineered by controlling their width and crystallographic orientation.
A number of optical techniques can produce subwavelength features on surfaces, but they tend to be limited in speed and expensive to implement. Researchers have now shown that a microsphere can be trapped near a surface by a specially shaped laser beam and used as a lens to focus another laser beam that writes subwavelength patterns directly onto the surface.
New laboratory studies using a simplified food web show that quantum dots can be ingested by certain ciliates and transferred to higher trophic organisms such as the predatory rotifers by dietary uptake.
Through a combination of superhydrophobicity and capillary action, membranes made of manganese oxide nanowires can be used to selectively absorb hydrophobic contaminants, such as oil, from water.
Researchers have measured the mechanical response of individual metallofullerene molecules confined inside a carbon nanotube to the tip of an atomic force microscope with atomic resolution. Highly elastic — that is, almost frictionless — behaviour was observed under certain conditions
To date most sensors based on nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) have been passive devices that require external periodic or pulsed stimuli to excite them into resonance. Now researchers have demonstrated an active NEMS device excited by a d.c. source that exhibits excellent frequency stability, linewidth narrowing and low-noise performance.
A pilot study in a small number of mice shows that long multiwalled carbon nanotubes introduced into the abdominal cavity can cause asbestos-like pathogenic behaviour. The results suggest the need for further research and caution before introducing nanotube products into the market.
Nanocomposites reinforced with functionalized graphene sheets that form strong interactions with the surrounding polymer matrix are shown to have significantly enhanced thermal and mechanical properties.
Nanoparticles released into the environment could impact the performance of the protozoa that regulate the population of bacteria and other microbes in water. New experiments show that carbon nanotubes are internalized by one such protozoa, Tetrahymena thermophila, reducing its ability to ingest and digest harmful bacteria species.