Heat can produce ultrasound
Currently most ultrasound devices convert an electrical signal directly into mechanical vibrations through the piezoelectric effect. But these devices only operate over a narrow frequency range and ha...
Parisi wins Dirac medal
Parisi won the award for his work in a wide number of fields. The official citation highlights “his study of scaling violations in deep inelastic processes (Altarelli-Parisi equations), a model ...
Vortex look for lasers
Scheuer and Orenstein used so-called vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers. In these devices the light is emitted from the top of the active region of the laser, rather than from the edge as in conv...
Defects work for laser
The photonic crystal was made by using an ion beam to drill a 2D hexagonal array of holes in a layer of indium gallium arsenide phosphide (InGaAsP). The regular spacing of the holes means that only ce...
DNA is a semiconductor
Fink and Schönenberger made their measurements by placing discrete amounts of DNA molecules in a water-based solution. A tiny droplet of the solution was then placed onto a gold-coated carbon foi...
Spinach to fuel optoelectronics
Although they are only 5nm long, each complex can generate 1 V in picoseconds, making them suitable for ultrafast switching, logic devices, and solar-power generation. The work was presented this week...
Quantum wells go metallic
Tai Chang Chiang and co-workers at Urbana confined electrons in thin films of silver ranging from 1 monolayer to around 100 monolayers thick. Just as photons resonate back and forth in an optical Fabr...
Optical computing moves forward
The pairs are created by illuminating a semiconductor quantum well with a pulsed laser diode. A slight voltage difference on the semiconductor keeps the electron and the hole in separate levels inside...
Patents for microlasers
The world-wide patent rights have been licensed by the university to Nanovation Technologies in Florida. The company hopes to develop an optical circuit which would contain thousands of microcavity la...
