Stretching diamond for next-generation microelectronics

Diamond is the hardest material in nature. It also has great potential as an excellent electronic material. A research team has demonstrated for the first time the large, uniform tensile elastic straining of microfabricated diamond arrays through the nanomechanical approach. Their findings have shown the potential of strained diamonds as prime candidates for advanced functional devices in microelectronics, photonics, and quantum information technologies.

Shapeshifting crystals: Varying stability in different forms of gallium selenide monolayers

Researchers investigate the structure and properties of a recently identified polymorph of gallium selenide crystal layer.

Chemists synthesize 'flat' silicon compounds

Chemists have synthesized extremely unusual compounds. Their central building block is a silicon atom. Different from usual, however, is the arrangement of the four bonding partners of the atom, which are not in the form of a tetrahedron around it, but flat like a trapezoid. This arrangement is usually energetically extremely unfavorable, yet the molecules are very stable.

'Soft' nanoparticles give plasmons new potential

Scientists couple gold nanoparticles with soft polymers that pull energy from the gold's plasmonic response to light. That energy can then be used to catalyze chemical reactions.

High-five or thumbs-up? New device detects which hand gesture you want to make

A new device developed by engineers can recognize hand gestures based on electrical signals detected in the forearm. The system, which couples wearable biosensors with artificial intelligence (AI), could one day be used to control prosthetics or to interact with almost any type of electronic device.

Flexible and powerful electronics

Researchers have developed a method for optimizing the electrical properties of carbon-based conductors by turning them into an ionic gel. This work may open the way for cheap, highly efficient sensors that can be printed on flexible surfaces.

New topological properties found in 'old' material of Cobalt disulfide

Researchers have discovered the presence of Weyl nodes in bulk CoS2 that allow them to make predictions about its surface properties. The material hosts Weyl-fermions and Fermi-arc surface states within its band structure, which may enable it to serve as a platform for exotic phenomena.