文章资讯
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- 2015-05-08 Study offers insights into a new class of semiconducting materials
- A new paper by University of Notre Dame researchers describes their investigations of the fundamental optical properties of a new class of semiconducting materials known as organic-inorganic "hybrid" perovskites.
The research was conducted at the Notre Dame Radiation Laboratory by Joseph Manser, a doctoral student in chemical and biomolecular engineering, under the direction of Prashant Kamat, Rev. John A. Zahm Professor of Science. The findings appear in a paper in the August 10 edition of the journal Nature Photonics. - See Details
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- 2015-05-07 Towards more efficient solar cells
- A layer of silicon nanocrystals and erbium ions may help solar cells to extract more energy from the ultraviolet (UV, high-energy) part of the solar spectrum. Experimental physicists from the FOM Foundation, the STW Technology Foundation and the University of Amsterdam published this news in Nature Communications on 13th August 2014. When conventional silicon-based solar cells absorb UV light, much of its energy is lost in the form of heat. The researchers showed that this excess energy can be used to excite multiple erbium ions. This causes the ions to emit light, which can then be converted into electricity.
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- 2015-05-07 Recycling old batteries into solar cells
- This could be a classic win-win solution: A system proposed by researchers at MIT recycles materials from discarded car batteries—a potential source of lead pollution—into new, long-lasting solar panels that provide emissions-free power.
The system is described in a paper in the journal Energy and Environmental Science, co-authored by professors Angela M. Belcher and Paula T. Hammond, graduate student Po-Yen Chen, and three others. - See Details
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- 2015-05-07 PayPal co-founder Max Levchin on a quest to outdo his own success
- For Max Levchin, the once-shy and at times off-putting whiz kid who co-founded PayPal, his early success has become his biggest burden.
The entrepreneur and investor says he will rest only when he has another startup that matches the success of PayPal, a company that spawned some of Silicon Valley's most notable entrepreneurs and investors and reportedly netted him about $34 million when it was sold to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion. - See Details
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- 2015-05-07 Biomimetic photodetector 'sees' in color
- Rice University researchers have created a CMOS-compatible, biomimetic color photodetector that directly responds to red, green and blue light in much the same way the human eye does.
The new device was created by researchers at Rice's Laboratory for Nanophotonics (LANP) and is described online in a new study in the journalAdvanced Materials. It uses an aluminum grating that can be added to silicon photodetectors with the silicon microchip industry's mainstay technology, "complementary metal-oxide semiconductor," or CMOS. - See Details
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- 2015-05-07 Cleveland welcomes growing field of server farms (Update)
- Northeast Ohio is hardly ready to usurp Silicon Valley as a high-tech mecca, but a growing number of data centers are choosing to locate in and around Cleveland to take advantage of cheap power, an abundance of fiber-optic cable and one of the safest environments in the U.S. for storing digital information.
BYTEGRID, which got its start in northern Virginia, is investing millions to convert a small data center near downtown Cleveland into a large one capable of using enough electricity to power around 20,000 homes. At least one other company is looking for a site in Cleveland, and several more have established sites in the city and its suburbs. - See Details
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- 2015-05-06 Wage gap grows between support staff at tech campuses and high-tech employees
- Amid the affluence of Silicon Valley's highly paid technology employees, an "invisible workforce" of low-paid support staff at the region's tech companies has emerged, making one-fifth the wages of the digital workers, according to a report released Tuesday.
Janitors, landscapers, grounds keepers, facilities cleaners and security guards working under contracts to provide support services to technology sites make about one-fifth the wages of software developers, systems software employees and network engineers, the study by a San Jose, Calif.-based labor group, Working Partnerships USA, determined. - See Details
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- 2015-05-06 Apple feeds frenzy with selective silence
- It is a marketing strategy that few experts would recommend and even fewer companies can pull off.
But the less Apple says about its eagerly anticipated event on Tuesday at a performing arts center in Silicon Valley, the more frenzied the speculation becomes.
In keeping with its style, Apple has revealed little about what is expected to be the unveiling of the company's first "big thing" since the death of legendary co-founder and driving force Steve Jobs nearly three years ago. - See Details
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- 2015-05-06 Artificial membranes on silicon: First synthetic membranes made without solvents described
- Artificial membranes mimicking those found in living organisms have many potential applications ranging from detecting bacterial contaminants in food to toxic pollution in the environment to dangerous diseases in people. Now a group of scientists in Chile has developed a way to create these delicate, ultra-thin constructs through a "dry" process, by evaporating two commercial, off-the-shelf chemicals onto silicon surfaces.
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- 2015-05-06 By switching catalyst from silver to copper, Natcore finds additional solar cell savings
- In making a solar cell, scientists etch nanoscale spikes into a silicon wafer in order to maximize its surface area and consequently to maximize the amount of sunlight to reach it. Metal particles have been used as a catalyst in this process because etching is much accelerated near metal particles.
Initially, gold had been the metal of choice. But at nearly $3,000 per troy ounce, gold is an expensive alternative. And so scientists found a way to switch to silver particles, since silver is much cheaper at around $20 per troy ounce. - See Details
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- 2015-05-06 'Electronic skin' could improve early breast cancer detection
- For detecting cancer, manual breast exams seem low-tech compared to other methods such as MRI. But scientists are now developing an "electronic skin" that "feels" and images small lumps that fingers can miss. Knowing the size and shape of a lump could allow for earlier identification of breast cancer, which could save lives. They describe their device, which they've tested on a breast model made of silicone, in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
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- 2015-05-06 Defying physics, engineers prove a magnetic field for light
- In electronics, changing the path of electrons and manipulating how they flow is as easy as applying a magnetic field.
Not so for light. "We don't have such a thing for light," said Michal Lipson, professor of electrical and computer engineering. "For the majority of materials, there is no such thing as something I can turn on, and apply this magic field to change the path of light." - See Details
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- 2015-05-06 DARPA program "grows" lasers directly on silicon-based microchips
- DARPA's Electronic-Photonic Heterogeneous Integration (E-PHI) program has successfully integrated billions of light-emitting dots on silicon to create an efficient silicon-based laser. The breakthrough, achieved by researchers working on the program at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), will enable the production of inexpensive and robust microsystems that exceed the performance capabilities of current technologies.
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- 2015-05-06 Moving silicon atoms in graphene with atomic precision
- Richard Feynman famously posed the question in 1959: is it possible to see and manipulate individual atoms in materials? For a time his vision seemed more science fiction than science, but starting with groundbreaking experiments in the late 1980s and more recent developments in electron microscopy instrumentation it has become scientific reality. However, damage caused by the electron beam is often an issue in such experiments.
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- 2015-05-06 New 'topological insulator' could lead to superfast computers
- University of Utah engineers discovered a way to create a special material – a metal layer on top of a silicon semiconductor – that could lead to cost-effective, superfast computers that perform lightning-fast calculations but don't overheat.
This new "topological insulator" behaves like an insulator on the inside but conducts electricity on the outside and may pave the way for quantum computers and fast spintronic devices. - See Details
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- 2015-05-06 Alibaba mega IPO caps founder Jack Ma success tale
- When Jack Ma founded Alibaba 15 years ago he insisted the e-commerce venture should see itself as competing against Silicon Valley, not other Chinese companies. That bold ambition from a time when China was still a corporate backwater has been vindicated this week by Alibaba completing a mammoth sale of shares to investors in the U.S. and elsewhere.
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- 2015-05-05 French telecom titan Orange courts US tech startups
- French telecom powerhouse Orange on Wednesday announced that Visa, LG Electronics and four more industry veterans have become allies in its program to nurture promising US tech startups.
The companies have created a "Fab Force" accelerator to boost prospects of chosen startups by providing connections, distribution, expertise, resources and more.
Along with Orange, the Fab Force consists of Visa, LG Electronics, Fnac, Morpho, Hilton, and Moet Hennessy. - See Details
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- 2015-05-05 World's smallest reference material is big plus for nanotechnology
- If it's true that good things come in small packages, then the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) can now make anyone working with nanoparticles very happy. NIST recently issued Reference Material (RM) 8027, the smallest known reference material ever created for validating measurements of these man-made, ultrafine particles between 1 and 100 nanometers (billionths of a meter) in size.
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- 2015-05-05 Controlling photoluminescence with silicon nanophotonics for better devices
- Silicon nanowires have a great deal of potential in future high-performance electronic, sensing and energy devices. Red photoluminescence has been reported in silicon nanowires, but for many applications this hampers device performance. As Tsuyoshi Okuno from the University of Electro-Communications and his colleagues point out in a recent report, "Although the photoluminescence mechanism is often discussed, the condition of the appearance and the absence of the red photoluminescence is rarely reported."
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- 2015-05-05 Scientists improve microscopic batteries with homebuilt imaging analysis
- In a rare case of having their cake and eating it too, scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and other institutions have developed a toolset that allows them to explore the complex interior of tiny, multi-layered batteries they devised. It provides insight into the batteries' performance without destroying them—resulting in both a useful probe for scientists and a potential power source for micromachines.
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- 2015-05-05 Researchers develop powerful, silicon-based laser
- A silicon-based laser that lases up to a record 111°C, with a threshold current density of 200 A/cm2 and an output power exceeding 100 mW at room temperature, has been demonstrated by collaborating researchers from University College London (UCL) in the UK, and University of Arkansas in the US. This work could permit the creation of complex optoelectronic circuits, enabling chip-to-chip and system-to-system communications on Si substrates.
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- 2015-05-05 Movement builds to ensure privacy for Internet users
- Before Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency and Prism made headlines, a group of technologists was dedicated to making the Internet more anonymous.
They were viewed mostly as paranoid, weird and potentially criminal.
Now, more than a year after revelations of the government's mass electronic surveillance program, they are leaders in a movement heating up in Silicon Valley and abroad to create more ways for people to use the Internet while keeping private who and where they are, and what they're doing on the Web. - See Details
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- 2015-05-05 Novel porous silicon microfabrication technique increases sensing ability
- Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have developed a novel method for improving silicon-based sensors used to detect biochemicals and other molecules in liquids. The simplified approach produces micro-scale optical detection devices that cost less to make than other designs, and provide a six-fold increase in sensitivity to target molecules.
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- 2015-05-05 Arrays of tiny conical tips that eject ionized materials could fabricate nanoscale devices cheaply
- Luis Fernando Velásquez-García's group at MIT's Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) develops dense arrays of microscopic cones that harness electrostatic forces to eject streams of ions.
The technology has a range of promising applications: depositing or etching features onto nanoscale mechanical devices; spinning out nanofibers for use in water filters, body armor, and "smart" textiles; or propulsion systems for fist-sized "nanosatellites." - See Details
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- 2015-05-05 Breakthrough technique offers prospect of silicon detectors for telecommunications
- A team of researchers, led by the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the University of Southampton, has demonstrated a breakthrough technique that offers the first possibility of silicon detectors for telecommunications.
For decades, silicon has been the foundation of the microelectronics revolution and, owing to its excellent optical properties in the near- and mid-infrared range, is now promising to have a similar impact on photonics. - See Details
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- 2015-05-05 New type of X-ray lens: Lamellar lens prototype has been successfully tested
- Researchers have taken an important step towards developing a new X-ray lens made of diamond. A team of scientists from the Technische Universität (TU) Dresden and Technische Universität Chemnitz as well as from DESY have successfully tested a new lens design. The group working with DESY Leading Scientist, Professor Christian Schroer, presents the results in the scientific journal Applied Physics Letters.
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- 2015-05-04 Mobile revolution shakes up Silicon Valley
- Smartphones, tablets and other gadgets aren't just changing the way we live and work. They are shaking up Silicon Valley's balance of power and splitting up businesses. Long-established companies such as Hewlett-Packard Co. and eBay Inc. are scrambling to regain their footing to better compete against mobile-savvy trendsetters like Apple and Google, as well as rising technology stars that have built businesses around "cloud computing."
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- 2015-05-04 Microsoft CEO gaffe fuels debate on women in tech
- Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella's gaffe over women, pay raises and karma comes as the US tech industry is facing up to questions over diversity and gender equality.
Nadella, named CEO at the tech giant in April, swiftly backtracked from his comments in which he suggested working women should trust karma for pay raises. - See Details
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- 2015-05-04 Physicists set new records for silicon quantum computing
- Two research teams working in the same laboratories at UNSW Australia have found distinct solutions to a critical challenge that has held back the realisation of super powerful quantum computers.
The teams created two types of quantum bits, or "qubits" – the building blocks for quantum computers – that each process quantum data with an accuracy above 99%. The two findings have been published simultaneously today in the journalNature Nanotechnology. - See Details
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- 2015-05-04 Cheaper silicon means cheaper solar cells
- Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology have pioneered a new approach to manufacturing solar cells that requires less silicon and can accommodate silicon with more impurities than is currently the standard. Those changes mean that solar cells can be made much more cheaply than at present.
A new method of producing solar cells could reduce the amount of silicon per unit area by 90 per cent compared to the current standard. With the high prices of pure silicon, this will help cut the cost of solar power. - See Details