Getting single-crystal diamond ready for electronics

Silicon has been the workhorse of electronics for decades because it is a common element, it's easy to process and has useful electronic properties. A limitation of silicon is that high temperatures damage it, which limits ...

Physicists use oscillations of atoms to control a phase transition

The goal of 'femtochemistry' is to film and control chemical reactions with short flashes of light. Using consecutive laser pulses, atomic bonds can be excited precisely and broken as desired. So far, this has been demonstrated ...

Tuning the surface gives variations to metal foils

Just as cloning in biology allows for the creation of one or more replicas of the exact same genes, seeded growth in chemistry can produce a very large metal foil with the exact same surface texture as that of a seeded one. ...

Technique reveals how crystals form on surfaces

The process of crystallization, in which atoms or molecules line up in orderly arrays like soldiers in formation, is the basis for many of the materials that define modern life, including the silicon in microchips and solar ...

Bouquets of nanoflowers with a golden touch

Using nano-sized spheres as a starting point, researcher Juan Wang of the University of Twente (MESA+ Institute) creates fascinating structures that can have a wide range of shapes and functionalities. They can even achieve ...

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