Author Archives: DIPC
Catalysis depends on the crystallographic plane of the catalyst
A catalyst is a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without itself undergoing any permanent chemical change. As the catalyst itself takes part in the reaction it may undergo a physical change. Hence, if catalysts take […]
Origin of the mysterious blue fluorescence of polymer carbon dots
A quantum dot is a nanometric crystalline structure of semiconductor materials. In a quatum dot electrons are confined in a region of space, thus creating a well defined structure of energy levels that depends very much on the size and […]
Nonequilibrium effects in hybrids of electron systems with spontaneously broken symmetries
Imagine a military regiment in formation. That we will call symmetry. Now imagine the same regiment when it is dismissed by the commanding officer: at once the soldiers disperse and tend to form domains (groups) or pairs. Hence, we can […]
Buckyball difluoride, a single-molecule crystal
Endohedral fullerenes, also called endofullerenes, are fullerenes that have additional atoms, ions, or clusters enclosed within their inner spheres. The first lanthanum C60 complex was synthesized in 1985 and called La@C60. The @ (at sign) in the […]
Avoiding geological timescales to access low energies in bulk glasses
Common glass, used in windows or bottles, for example, is made by heating a mixture of calcium oxide (lime), sodium carbonate (soda), and silicon (IV) oxide (sand), resulting in a calcium silicate. This silicate is not a crystal but a […]
A route to the directional control of light–matter interactions at the nanoscale
Mobile phones and computers are currently responsible for up to 8% of the electricity use in the world. This figure has been doubling each past decade but nothing prevents it from skyrocketing in the future. Unless we find a way […]
Vibrational spectra of liquids with nanometer spatial resolution
The ability to examine the vibrational spectra of liquids with nanometer spatial resolution will greatly expand the potential to study liquids and liquid interfaces. After all, modern technology, including many manufacturing processes, and science depend on understanding the detailed interactions […]
The role of core electrons in the electronic stopping power of heavy ions
Spacecraft components potentially exposed to different ionic projectiles in space, new materials used in new energy systems or healthy tissues exposed to cancer therapies are all instances where a full comprehension of how the energy of the incoming ions is […]
How to build structures atom by atom using a scanning transmission electron microscope
“What would happen if we could arrange the atoms one by one the way we want them?” Richard Feynman
Fabrication of matter atom by atom remains a long-standing dream and ultimate goal of nanotechnology, following the famous challenge by Feynman […]
Structurally well-defined boundaries in a fully accessible quantum spin Hall insulator
Imagine that we have a conductor or a semiconductor through which a current is flowing. Then we apply a strong transverse magnetic field. As a result, we can measure a potential difference at right angles to both the current and […]