Materials Science News

This conceptual illustration of a computer based on 2D molecules displays an actual scanning electron microscope image of the computer fabricated by Ghosh et al. Image credit: Krishnendu Mukhopadhyay / Penn State.

Researchers Develop World’s First Non-Silicon 2D Computer

Jun 18, 2025 by News Staff

Silicon has enabled advancements in semiconductor technology through miniaturization, but scaling challenges necessitate the exploration of new materials....

Biswas et al. observed how electrons, excited by ultrafast light pulses, danced in unison around a buckminsterfullerene molecule, then emitted excess energy in the form of several electrons. Image credit: RMT Bergues.

Physicists Observe Synchronized Dance of Electrons on Buckminsterfullerene Molecule

Feb 19, 2025 by News Staff

Physicists from SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the University of Hamburg have observed how electrons, excited by ultrafast light pulses, danced...

A film a few atoms thick of non-crystalline niobium phosphide conducts better through the surface to make the material, as a whole, a better conductor. Image credit: Il-Kwon Oh / Asir Khan.

Researchers Create Ultrathin Niobium-Phosphide Conductor for Nanoelectronics

Jan 9, 2025 by News Staff

Niobium phosphide can conduct electricity better than copper in films that are only a few atoms thick; moreover, these films can be created and deposited...

Illustration of the atomic arrangement within a single lanthanide-doped nanocrystal; each lanthanide ion can emit light. Image credit: Andrew Mueller / Columbia Engineering.

Researchers Create New Nanosensors of Force

Jan 1, 2025 by News Staff

The newly-developed all-optical nanosensors are luminescent nanocrystals that can change intensity and/or color when you push or pull on them; they are...

Ilyas et al. demonstrated the efficient manipulation of the magnetic ground state in layered magnets through non-thermal pathways using terahertz light and established regions near critical points with enhanced order parameter fluctuations as promising areas to search for metastable hidden quantum states. Image credit: Adam Glanzman.

Scientists Magnetize Antiferromagnetic Material with Terahertz Laser Light

Dec 26, 2024 by News Staff

Physicists at MIT have directly stimulated atoms in an antiferromagnetic material using a terahertz laser, a light source that oscillates more than a trillion...

Planck’s law ignores but does not prohibit black-body radiation (BBR) from being circularly polarized. BBR from nanostructured filaments with twisted geometry from nanocarbon or metal has strong ellipticity from 500 to 3000 nanometers. The submicrometer-scale chirality of these filaments satisfies the dimensionality requirements imposed by fluctuation-dissipation theorem and requires symmetry breaking in absorptivity and emissivity according to Kirchhoff’s law. The resulting BBR shows emission anisotropy and brightness exceeding those of conventional chiral photon emitters by factors of 10 to 100. Image credit: Lu et al., doi: 10.1126/science.adq4068.

Nanostructured Filaments Produce Bright Light Waves that Twirl as They Travel

Dec 24, 2024 by News Staff

Bright, twisted light can be produced thanks to nanostructured filaments with twisted geometry, according to scientists at the University of Michigan. Planck’s...

Mapping of the altermagnetic order vector in MnTe. Image credit: Amin et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-08234-x.

New Class of Magnetism Imaged for First Time: Altermagnetism

Dec 12, 2024 by News Staff

Altermagnetism is a distinct form of magnetic order where the tiny constituent magnetic building blocks align antiparallel to their neighbors, but the...

Bottom-up nano- to micro-fabrication is crucial in modern electronics and optics. Conventional multi-scale array fabrication techniques, however, are facing challenges in reconciling the contradiction between the pursuit of better device performance and lowering the fabrication cost and/or energy consumption. Chang et al. introduce a facile mixed-metal array fabrication method based on guided self-assembly of polymerizing organometallic adducts derived from the passivating oxides of a ternary liquid metal to create mixed metal wires. Image credit: Julia Chang.

Researchers Demonstrate New Technique for Self-Assembling Electronics

Dec 5, 2024 by News Staff

The new proof-of-concept work, published in the journal Materials Horizons, paves the way for self-assembling more complex electronic devices without relying...

$A diffractive robot. Image credit: Smart et al., doi: 10.1126/science.adr2177.$

Researchers Create Smallest Walking Robot Yet

Dec 4, 2024 by News Staff

A team of researchers at Cornell University has created a new class of magnetically controlled microscopic robots (microbots) that operate at the visible-light...

Britton et al. used a scanning electron microscope, scanning the mat with a focused beam of electrons and creating an image based on the pattern of electrons that are deflected or knocked-off; each individual strand is too narrow to be clearly captured by any form of visible light camera or microscope. Image credit: Beatrice Britton / Adam Clancy.

World’s Thinnest Spaghetti Created: Nanopasta

Nov 25, 2024 by News Staff

The world’s thinnest spaghetti is just 372 nm across — about 200 times thinner than a human hair. Britton et al. used a scanning electron microscope,...

The 5D memory crystal. Image credit: University of Southampton.

Researchers Store Entire Human Genome on ‘Everlasting’ 5D Memory Crystal

Sep 20, 2024 by News Staff

Unlike other data storage formats that degrade over time, 5D memory crystals can store up to 360 terabytes of information without loss for billions of...

This schematic shows the process by which the smart mask can detect chemicals in the breath, such as nitrite, which is an indicator of airway inflammation. Image credit: Wei Gao & Wenzheng Heng, Caltech.

EBCare: New Smart Mask Can Be Used to Assess Metabolic and Respiratory Conditions

Aug 30, 2024 by News Staff

Recent respiratory outbreaks have garnered substantial attention, yet most respiratory monitoring remains confined to physical signals. Exhaled breath...

C-ELM uses Kamptonema animale cyanobacteria to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Image credit: Prantar Tamuli.

New Building Biomaterial Draws Carbon Dioxide Out of Atmosphere, Scientists Say

Aug 12, 2024 by News Staff

A new biomaterial called C-ELM incorporates living cyanobacteria into translucent panels that can be mounted on to the interior walls of buildings. As...

An artist’s impression of fast phosphorescence: the blue light rays come into the molecule to generate bold yellow pillars, representing the acceleration of phosphorescence through the mixing of singlet states. Image credit: YAP Co Ltd.

Metal-Free Organic Molecules Show Highly Efficient Room-Temperature Phosphorescence

Jul 4, 2024 by News Staff

Metal-free organic 3-bromo-2-thienyl diketones exhibit fast and highly efficient room-temperature phosphorescence with high color purity under various...

Shroff et al. revealed excellent antiviral activity manifesting already within 10 to 15 min in Scots pine and Norway spruce, particularly against enveloped viruses; in contrast, other hardwoods displayed varied efficacy, with oak showing effectiveness against the enterovirus. Image credit: Shroff et al., doi: 10.1021/acsami.4c02156.

Solid Wood Surfaces Have Natural Antiviral Properties, Study Shows

Jun 19, 2024 by News Staff

In a new study, scientists from the University of Jyväskylä and the University of Eastern Finland evaluated the antiviral efficacy of various wood types,...

Casati et al. demonstrated experimentally the solar-trapping effect at temperatures as high as 1,050 degrees Celsius; by using quartz as the volumetric absorption medium, they performed stagnation experiments under concentrated thermal radiation and achieved steady-state temperature differences between the absorber and the outer surface of about 600 degrees Celsius. Image credit: Casati et al., doi: 10.1016/j.device.2024.100399.

Researchers Demonstrate Thermal Trapping of Solar Radiation at 1,922 Degrees Fahrenheit

May 15, 2024 by News Staff

With the world focusing on decarbonizing electricity and transportation, abating emissions from industrial process heat remain the elephant in the room....

Preparation of goldene. Image credit: Kashiwaya et al., doi: 10.1038/s44160-024-00518-4.

Scientists Create Single-Atom-Thick Gold: Goldene

Apr 23, 2024 by News Staff

Goldene in the form of gold monolayer sheets has been prepared by etching away titanium carbide (Ti3C2) slabs from titanium gold carbide (Ti3AuC2). Preparation...

Tang et al. discovered neutronic molecules, in which neutrons can be made to cling to quantum dots, held just by the strong force: the red item represents a bound neutron, the sphere is a hydride nanoparticle, and the yellow field represents a neutron wavefunction. Image credit: Tang et al., doi: 10.1021/acsnano.3c12929.

Scientists Discover ‘Neutronic Molecules’

Apr 8, 2024 by News Staff

Neutrons are subatomic particles that have no electric charge, unlike protons and electrons. That means that while the electromagnetic force is responsible...

Miassite is one of only four minerals found in nature that act as a superconductor when grown in the lab and the only mineral known so far that reveals unconventional superconductivity in its clean synthetic form. Image credit: Paul Canfield.

Physicists Identify First Unconventional Superconductor with Composition Also Found in Nature

Mar 13, 2024 by News Staff

Solid state chemistry has produced a plethora of materials with properties not found in nature. For example, high-temperature superconductivity in copper-oxide...