Oxidation can degrade the properties and functionality of metals. However, a research team co-led by scientists from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) recently found that severely oxidized metallic glass nanotubes can attain an ultrahigh recoverable elastic strain, outperforming most conventional super-elastic metals. They also discovered the physical mechanisms underpinning this super-elasticity. Their discovery implies that oxidation in low-dimension metallic glass can result in unique properties for applications in sensors, medical devices and other nanodevices. In recent years, the functional…
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) in Hamburg, Germany and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in the United States have gained new insights into the development of the light-induced ferroelectric state in SrTiO₃. They exposed the material to mid-infrared and terahertz frequency laser pulses and found that the fluctuations of its atomic positions are reduced under these conditions. This may explain the emergence of a more ordered dipolar structure than in equilibrium…
…unveils high-performance ceramics for extreme environments. Research team identifies hundreds of representatives of a particularly heat-resistant class of materials. An international research team has developed a method for rapidly discovering new types of materials that function at extremely high temperatures of several thousand degrees Celsius. These high-performance ceramics could one day form the basis for more robust coatings, batteries and radiation-resistant devices. Dr. Rico Friedrich, research group leader at Dresden University of Technology (TUD) and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), made…
High-speed experiments will help identify lightweight, protective “metamaterials” for spacecraft, vehicles, helmets, or other objects. An intricate, honeycomb-like structure of struts and beams could withstand a supersonic impact better than a solid slab of the same material. What’s more, the specific structure matters, with some being more resilient to impacts than others. That’s what MIT engineers are finding in experiments with microscopic metamaterials — materials that are intentionally printed, assembled, or otherwise engineered with microscopic architectures that give the overall…
What happens when you expose tellurite glass to femtosecond laser light? That’s the question that Gözden Torun at the Galatea Lab, in a collaboration with Tokyo Tech scientists, aimed to answer in her thesis work when she made the discovery that may one day turn windows into single material light-harvesting and sensing devices. The results are published in PR Applied. Interested in how the atoms in the tellurite glass would reorganize when exposed to fast pulses of high energy femtosecond…
LZH Researches Oxygen-Free Production. In the field of metal processing, dealing with oxidation can be quite challenging. One potential approach involves carrying out production in an environment free from oxygen. The Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (LZH) is investigating how this concept can be applied in laser beam brazing and additive manufacturing. Oxygen is a disruptive factor in many production processes within the metalworking industry: Oxide layers formed during metal processing in the presence of oxygen can hinder the joining of…
The shape, size and optical properties of 3-dimensional nanostructures can now be simulated in advance before they are produced directly with high precision on a wide variety of surfaces. For around 20 years, it has been possible to modify surfaces via nanoparticles so that they concentrate or manipulate light in the desired way or trigger other reactions. Such optically active nanostructures can be found in solar cells and biological or chemical sensors, for example. In order to expand their range…
A team at HZB has developed a new measurement method that, for the first time, accurately detects tiny temperature differences in the range of 100 microkelvin in the thermal Hall effect. Previously, these temperature differences could not be measured quantitatively due to thermal noise. Using the well-known terbium titanate as an example, the team demonstrated that the method delivers highly reliable results. The thermal Hall effect provides information about coherent multi-particle states in quantum materials, based on their interaction with…
CASUS scientists contribute to an extensive effort to verify existing computer codes intended for materials simulations. Physicists and materials scientists can choose from a whole family of computer codes that simulate the behavior of materials and predict their properties. The accuracy of the results obtained by these codes depends on the employed approximations and chosen numerical parameters. To verify that the results from different codes are comparable, consistent with each other, and reproducible, a large group of scientists did the…
Processing materials on the nanoscale, producing prototypes for microelectronics or analyzing biological samples: The range of applications for finely focused ion beams is huge. Experts from the EU collaboration FIT4NANO have now reviewed the many options and developed a roadmap for the future. The article, published in “Applied Physics Review” (DOI: 10.1063/5.0162597), is aimed at students, users from industry and science as well as research policy makers. “We realized that focused ion beams can be used in many different ways,…
Study finds chiral structures, with mirror-image configurations, can emerge from nonchiral systems, suggesting new ways to engineer these materials. Hold your hands out in front of you, and no matter how you rotate them, it’s impossible to superimpose one over the other. Our hands are a perfect example of chirality — a geometric configuration by which an object cannot be superimposed onto its mirror image. Chirality is everywhere in nature, from our hands to the arrangement of our internal organs…
Skis with Functional Surfaces as an Alternative. The winter sports industry is seeking a replacement for the prohibited fluorinated ski wax. Scientists at the Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (LZH) have developed an eco-friendly alternative that maintains performance: skis with an innovative microstructure. Whether in professional or recreational skiing, waxing skis and snowboards is crucial for smoother gliding and higher speeds. Typically used products contain per- and polyfluorinated alkanes, known as PFAS, some of which have shown health risks in animal…
Researchers from Chemnitz, Dresden und Shenzhen (China) describe in an article in the prestigious journal “Nature Nanotechnology“, how tiny magnetic springs can significantly advance medical applications. The integration of mechanical memory in the form of springs has for hundreds of years proven to be a key enabling technology for mechanical devices (like clocks), achieving advanced functionality through complex autonomous movements. In our times, the integration of springs in silicon-based microtechnology has opened the world of planar mass-producible mechatronic devices from…
The technology could allow for smaller and faster devices and may have applications for quantum computing. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have created the world’s first functional semiconductor made from graphene, a single sheet of carbon atoms held together by the strongest bonds known. Semiconductors, which are materials that conduct electricity under specific conditions, are foundational components of electronic devices. The team’s breakthrough throws open the door to a new way of doing electronics. Their discovery comes at a time…
A new computational method unveils hundreds of new ceramic materials with a wide range of potentially industry-disrupting properties like electronics that could function in a lava bath. If you have a deep-seated, nagging worry over dropping your phone in molten lava, you’re in luck. A research team led by materials scientists at Duke University has developed a method for rapidly discovering a new class of materials with heat and electronic tolerances so rugged that they that could enable devices to…
Toward photoelectrochemical water-splitting hydrogen production. A research team consisting of members of the Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute and the Functional Materials Engineering Laboratory at the Toyohashi University of Technology, has developed a novel high-performance photoelectrode by constructing a zinc oxide nanopagoda array with a unique shape on a transparent electrode and applying silver nanoparticles to its surface. The zinc oxide nanopagoda is characterized by having many step structures, as it comprises stacks of differently sized hexagonal prisms. In addition, it…
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