News from the NNI Community - Research Advances Funded by Agencies Participating in the NNI

Researchers at the University of Delaware have shown for the first time that the old carbon found on the seafloor can be directly linked to submicron graphite particles emanating from hydrothermal vents. To conduct their study, the researchers used samples of nanoparticles from five different hydrothermal vent sites collected during a research expedition to the East Pacific Rise vent field in the Pacific Ocean. Then the researchers analyzed the samples under scanning and transmission microscopes at the National Center for Earth and Environmental Nanotechnology Infrastructure (NanoEarth) at Virginia Tech.

Metalenses—flat surfaces that use nanostructures to focus light—are poised to revolutionize microscopes, cameras, sensors, and displays. But so far, most of the lenses have been about the size of a piece of glitter. Now, researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have developed an all-glass, centimeter-scale metalens in the visible spectrum that can be manufactured using conventional chip fabrication methods.

Metalenses—flat surfaces that use nanostructures to focus light—are poised to revolutionize microscopes, cameras, sensors, and displays. But so far, most of the lenses have been about the size of a piece of glitter. Now, researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have developed an all-glass, centimeter-scale metalens in the visible spectrum that can be manufactured using conventional chip fabrication methods.

Researchers at Rice and Swansea universities have developed a technique to use inexpensive newsprint harvested from newspapers to grow carbon nanotubes for industry. More specifically, the scientists have shown that a particular kind of newsprint can be treated to serve as a three-dimensional substrate for single-walled carbon nanotube growth.

Researchers at Rice and Swansea universities have developed a technique to use inexpensive newsprint harvested from newspapers to grow carbon nanotubes for industry. More specifically, the scientists have shown that a particular kind of newsprint can be treated to serve as a three-dimensional substrate for single-walled carbon nanotube growth.

Perovskite nanocrystals hold promise for improving a wide variety of optoelectronic devices, but problems with their durability still limit the material's broad commercial use. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have demonstrated a novel approach aimed at addressing the material's durability problem: encasing the perovskite inside a double-layer protection system made from plastic and silica.

Perovskite nanocrystals hold promise for improving a wide variety of optoelectronic devices, but problems with their durability still limit the material's broad commercial use. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have demonstrated a novel approach aimed at addressing the material's durability problem: encasing the perovskite inside a double-layer protection system made from plastic and silica.

Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and the University of California, Riverside have found a way to transfer energy between silicon and organic, carbon-based molecules—a breakthrough that has implications for information storage in quantum computing, solar energy conversion, and medical imaging. The discovery provides a way to boost silicon's efficiency by pairing it with a carbon-based material that converts blue photons into pairs of red photons that can be more efficiently used by silicon.

Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and the University of California, Riverside have found a way to transfer energy between silicon and organic, carbon-based molecules—a breakthrough that has implications for information storage in quantum computing, solar energy conversion, and medical imaging. The discovery provides a way to boost silicon's efficiency by pairing it with a carbon-based material that converts blue photons into pairs of red photons that can be more efficiently used by silicon.

The University of Southern California has partnered with Carbonics, Inc., to develop a carbon nanotube technology that, for the first time, achieved speeds exceeding 100 gigahertz in radio frequency applications. The milestone eclipses the performance of traditional Radio Frequency Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (RF-CMOS) technology, which is ubiquitous in modern consumer electronics, including cell phones.