The capacity of creating an electronic bonding network between localized units would be key to enhance the critical temperature in hydrogen-based superconductors, according to recent results. The field of hydrogen-based superconductivity has progressed enormously since 1968, when Ashcroft first proposed that pressurized hydrogen may become a high-temperature superconductor due to the high energy of its […]
CFM • DIPC • DIPC Photonics
Plasmonic cavities formed by metallic surfaces are nanostructures that confine light to dimensions far smaller than the free-space wavelength, as they mix optical fields with electronic excitations. I t was not until the 1990s, with the appearance of accurate and reliable nanofabrication techniques, that plasmonics blossomed. It was found then that local fields around nanostructures […]
In the last decades, a mathematical description of symmetries in nature called topology has been applied to describe and predict new electronic and magnetic properties of materials. A very simple aspect of topology connects a symmetry in the atomic structure of a crystal with a class of materials. Many materials that we know or use […]
Since the discovery of graphene, a wide diversity of atomic-layer-thick, two-dimensional (2D) materials with varied properties have emerged. Of particular interest are those that exhibit semiconducting behaviour, such as hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). hBN is isoelectronic to graphene and has also a honeycomb lattice formed by alternating nitrogen and boron atoms, but in contrast to […]
Over the past several decades researchers have thought how materials and device architectures can efficiently convert solar radiation into electrical power through the photovoltaic effect. Those efforts have led to different methods and processes to produce green energy. In this context, organic photovoltaic (OPV) technology has received considerable attention because it indeed constitutes a new […]
Specialisation has necessarily led to the fragmentation of knowledge, creating loosely connected disciplines in which discoveries in one area are hardly known in others. This implies that the flow of knowledge is severely restricted among disciplines or even among different areas within the same discipline. In recent decades, different approaches have been proposed to overcome […]
Tetrapyrroles,“the pigments of life”,are key molecules for the metabolism of living organisms, supporting functions of vital importance such as electron transport, light-harvesting and oxygen reduction. Within this family of compounds, porphyrins are organic pigments characterized by the possesion of a cyclic group of four linked nitrogen-containing rings called porphyrin, the nitrogen atoms of which are […]
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 solid in which atoms are random and have no long-range ordered pattern. These kind of […]
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 […]
Terahertz (THz) radiation is all around us. For example, this page emits blackbody radiation mainly in the THz region (broadly from 0.3 THz to 30 THz). Because terahertz radiation begins at a wavelength of around one millimeter and proceeds into shorter wavelengths, it is sometimes known as the submillimeter band, and its radiation as submillimeter […]