The way a particular reaction proceeds, described in terms of the steps involved, is called mechanism. The study of organic chemistry is, to a great extent, the study of reaction mechanisms and textbooks content both their description and their applications. But something has come to revolutionize the world of mechanisms: surface chemistry. On-surface synthesis is […]
CFM • DIPC • DIPC Photonics
As the top atomic monolayer lifts a few Å off the underlying bulk Au (111), ab initio electronic structure calculations show that for gaps >1.5 Å, visible light squeezes inside the empty slot underneath, giving optical field distributions 2 Å thick, less than the atomic diameter. Considerable attention has been paid in the past decades […]
Magnetic two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors have attracted a lot of attention because modern preparation techniques are capable of providing single crystal films of these materials with precise control of thickness down to the single-layer limit. It opens up a way to study a rich variety of electronic and magnetic phenomena with promising routes towards potential applications […]
A cement is any of various substances used for bonding or setting to a hard material. A popular one, Portland cement, is a mixture of calcium silicates and aluminates made by heating limestone (CaCO3) with clay (that contains aluminosilicates) in a kiln. The product is then ground to a fine powder. When Portland cement is […]
CFM • DIPC • DIPC Photonics
Molecular vibrations couple to visible light only weakly, have small mutual interactions, and hence are often ignored for non-linear optics. Still, molecular vibrations dominate electronic, thermal, and spin transport in a wide range of devices from photovoltaics to molecular electronics as well as being of fundamental interest. Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) is well-established for studying […]
Chemical contamination of water bodies on one hand, and water shortages due to overexploitation on the other, have increased the need for effective and efficient water treatment and decontamination processes. Two important aspects need to be taken into consideration to define what is an “effective and efficient” treatment. First, as current methods of removing pathogens […]
The scattering of conduction electrons in metals owing to impurities with magnetic moments is known as the Kondo effect, after Jun Kondo, who analysed the phenomenon in 1964. This scattering increases the electrical resistance and has the consequence that, in contrast to ordinary metals, the resistance reaches a minimum as the temperature is lowered and […]
An international research team has presented a new quantum platform based on the electron spin of single atoms on a solid surface, achieving a ‘multiple qubit (quantum bit)’ system using three electron spins. Unlike previous atomic quantum devices on surfaces where only a single qubit could be controlled, the researchers have successfully demonstrated the ability […]
We all know what glass is, don’t we? We just point to the nearest window and it is that transparent sheet. Humans have been producing glass for at least 6,000 years, way before they knew how to smelt iron. Actually, the chemistry is well known: to produce window glass we just heat a mixture of […]
Spurred by outstanding optical properties, chemical stability, and facile bioconjugation, plasmonic metals have become the first-choice materials for optical signal transducers in biosensing. While the design rules for surface-based plasmonic sensors are well-established and commercialized, there is limited knowledge of the design of sensors based on nanoparticle aggregation. The working principle of biosensors built around […]