Nature: Nanotechnology

Nature Nanotechnology - Issue - nature.com science feeds

• Help from above
  What role do macroscopic ideas and concepts play in the development of nanoscience and technology?
  
  
• In the footsteps of biotech
  Can the nanotech community learn anything from biotechnology? Chris Toumey reports.
  
  
• Our choice from the recent literature
• Topological insulators: A romance with many dimensions
  Electric charges on the boundaries of certain insulators are programmed by topology to keep moving forward when they encounter an obstacle, rather than scattering backwards and increasing the resistance of the system. This is just one reason why topological insulators are one of the hottest topics in physics right now.
  
  
• Nanoparticles: Dissected with electrons
  A combination of electron microscopy and electron energy-loss spectroscopy can be used to chemically map complex hybrid nanoparticles.
  
  
• Nanobiotechnology: Nanowires have cells in their sights
  The ability of 'electric tweezers' to guide nanowires coated with biomolecules to specific locations on the surface of individual cells will allow biological processes to be studied in greater detail.
  
  
• Data storage: The third plasmonic revolution
  Combining nanostructured magnetic media with nanoplasmonic antennas has propelled commercially viable data-storage densities beyond one terabit per square inch.
  
  
• Self-assembly: Nanowires find their place
  Single nanowires have been self-assembled onto thousands of electrode pairs across large areas with high precision.
  
  
• Nanoscale optics: Plasmonics gets transformed
  A high degree of control over plasmons can be achieved at the nanoscale by engineering the properties of adjacent dielectric layers.
  
  
• Graphene transistors
  Graphene is being investigated as a candidate material for post-silicon electronics. This article reviews the properties of graphene that are relevant to transistors, and discusses the trade-offs between them.
  
  
• Thermal infrared emission from biased graphene
  Infrared radiation from biased graphene transistors can be used to extract the temperature distribution, carrier densities and spatial location of the Dirac point in the graphene channel.
  
  
• Spectroscopy of few-electron single-crystal silicon quantum dots
  By controlling the density of phosphorus dopant atoms in single-crystal silicon it is possible to fabricate quantum dots that do not contain interfaces between different materials.
  
  
• Direct imaging of single metal atoms and clusters in the pores of dealuminated HY zeolite
  Aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy can image the active sites of iridium catalysts anchored in zeolite crystals, determining their locations and approximate distance from the surface of the crystals.
  
  
• Mimicking the colourful wing scale structure of the Papilio blumei butterfly
  Colour mixing and other optical effects displayed by the wings of the Papilio blumei butterfly have now been replicated by a combination of colloid self-assembly and other standard layer-deposition techniques.
  
  
• Large oscillations of the magnetoresistance in nanopatterned high-temperature superconducting films
  The resistance of a network of nanoscale loops of La2−xSrxCuO4 oscillates as a function of the magnetic flux through the loops in a way that cannot be explained by the classic Little–Parks effect, but also rules out some theoretical predictions about these systems.
  
  
• Self-assembly of three-dimensional prestressed tensegrity structures from DNA
  DNA can self-assemble into prestressed tensegrity nanostructures composed of compressed bundles of double helices and tense linking segments of single-stranded DNA.
  
  
• High-yield self-limiting single-nanowire assembly with dielectrophoresis
  Single silicon nanowires are assembled onto patterned electrodes with a 98.5% yield and submicrometre precision using dielectrophoresis under constant fluid flow.
  
  
• High-power lithium batteries from functionalized carbon-nanotube electrodes
  A lithium battery whose positive electrode consists of functionalized carbon nanotubes can achieve higher energy densities than electrochemical capacitors while delivering higher power than conventional lithium-ion batteries.
  
  
• Imaging and quantifying the morphology of an organic–inorganic nanoparticle at the sub-nanometre level
  High-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy, combined with electron energy-loss spectroscopy, can analyse both the organic and inorganic components of a hybrid nanoparticle.
  
  
• Subcellular-resolution delivery of a cytokine through precisely manipulated nanowires
  Gold nanowires conjugated with a cytokine can be transported to specific cells with high precision using electrophoretic and dielectrophoretic forces.