Innovative, customized, and sustainable – these are the keywords for the numerous research projects of the Fraunhofer IPMS. At one of the leading conferences and trade fairs for photonics – SPIE Photonics West in San Francisco from January 27 to February 1, 2024 – the institute will present developments and advances in areas such as micro-optics, MEMS-based light modulators and biophotonics. The Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS is one of the leading research institutes for the development and production…

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,…

Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, Month Day, Year – Scientists at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) have unveiled a roadmap for bringing perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells to market, paving the way for a future powered by abundant, inexpensive clean energy in Saudi Arabia and the world. The authors of the article, published in esteemed journal Science, include Prof. Stefaan De Wolf and his research team at the KAUST Solar Center. The team is working on improving solar efficiency to…

BMBF Funds “FB2-SiSuFest” to Evaluate Novel Storage Material. Novel storage material for solid-state batteries is the focus of the project “FB2-SiSuFest – Evaluation of silicon anodes in sulfide solid-state batteries”. As a promising anode material, silicon nitride-based particles could enable a high storage capacity with stable and safe operation. The research alliance of renowned partners has received funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) amounting to 1.7 million euros as part of the “Clusters Go Industry” funding…

Free charge carriers in perovskite solar cells likely have a special form of protection from recombination, researchers at Forschungszentrum Jülich have discovered by means of innovative photoluminescence measurements. Highly efficient and relatively inexpensive to produce – perovskite solar cells have been the subject of repeated surprises in recent years. Scientists at Forschungszentrum Jülich have now discovered another special feature of the cells using a new photoluminescence measurement technique. They found that the loss of charge carriers in this type of…

Nanowire contacts push the boundaries for high-performance electronics. Space comes at a premium on electronic chips: Powerful electronics need more and more connections, crammed into smaller and smaller spaces. Established technologies are reaching the limits of what is physically possible. Now, researchers at Fraunhofer IZM-ASSID have teamed up with other partners to level up a connection technology patented by NanoWired GmbH that uses wires at a nanometer scale. The team demonstrated how the novel technology could be used in the…

Decisions on treatment for leukemia patients are based, among other things, on a series of certain genetic features of the disease. IT specialists and physicians at the University of Münster have now published a study showing how a method based on artificial intelligence can be used to predict various genetic features on the basis of high-resolution microscopic images of bone marrow smears. The results have been published in the journal “Blood Advances”. Decisions on treatment for patients with acute myeloid…

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…

Coal is an abundant resource in the United States that has, unfortunately, contributed to climate change through its use as a fossil fuel. As the country transitions to other means of energy production, it will be important to consider and reevaluate coal’s economic role. A joint research effort from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the National Energy Technology Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company has shown how coal can play a vital role in next-generation…

Lightweight and inexpensive, miniaturized mass filters are a key step toward portable mass spectrometers that could identify unknown chemicals in remote settings. Mass spectrometers, devices that identify chemical substances, are widely used in applications like crime scene analysis, toxicology testing, and geological surveying. But these machines are bulky, expensive, and easy to damage, which limits where they can be effectively deployed. Using additive manufacturing, MIT researchers produced a mass filter, which is the core component of a mass spectrometer, that…

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…

New research examines process on atomic level. Binghamton University collaboration with University of Pittsburgh, Brookhaven National Laboratory offers new a view of everyday chemical reaction. When water vapor meets metal, the resulting corrosion can lead to mechanical problems that harm a machine’s performance. Through a process called passivation, it also can form a thin inert layer that acts as a barrier against further deterioration. Either way, the exact chemical reaction is not well understood on an atomic level, but that…

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…