Category archives: Nanotechnology

Structurally well-defined boundaries in a fully accessible quantum spin Hall insulator

Structurally well-defined boundaries in a fully accessible quantum spin Hall insulator

MaterialsNanotechnologyQuantum physics

By DIPC

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 the field caused by the deflection of charge carriers by the field. This effect was […]

Surface-Enhanced Molecular Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy

Surface-Enhanced Molecular Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy

Condensed matterMaterialsNanotechnologyPhysicsQuantum physicsTheoretical physics

By DIPC

Chemists have a range of different spectroscopic techniques to study organic molecules. All of these techniques are based on spectra generated by a range of electronic transitions and vibrations, key excitations in matter, the study of which provides information about characteristics of materials and, therefore, allow their identification. In this context, one of those spectroscopic […]

HOTI bismuth

HOTI bismuth

Condensed matterMaterialsNanotechnologyPhysicsQuantum physicsTheoretical physics

By DIPC

The properties of bismuth have long defied classification, placing it in a category of its own. Now, as if it was not enough, it turns out its electronic structure has higher-order topology. This has been shown by an international team with the participation of Maia G. Vergniory (DIPC, Ikerbasque, UPV/EHU) and coordinated by Titus Neupert […]

The microscopic mechanism behind the vibrational relaxation of adsorbates on metal surfaces

The microscopic mechanism behind the vibrational relaxation of adsorbates on metal surfaces

Condensed matterMaterialsNanotechnologyPhysicsTheoretical physics

By DIPC

Most of the theories describing dynamical processes at surfaces rely on the validity of the adiabatic Born-Oppenheimer approximation. What does this mean? We have already seen that adsorption commonly is understood as the reversible binding of molecules and atoms from the gaseous or liquid phase on surfaces, mostly of highly porous adsorbent media. In chemisorption […]

Geometric control of noble-metal nanoparticles

Geometric control of noble-metal nanoparticles

ChemistryCondensed matterMaterialsNanotechnology

By Invited Researcher

Author: Roberto D’Agosta is an Ikerbasque Research Professor at ETSF and the Department of Materials Physics in the Faculty of Chemistry at the UPV/EHU in San Sebastian. Francesca Baletto, senior lecturer at King’s College London, read and commented the manuscript. Every single moment, nature exploits catalysis to make or improve specific chemical reactions. Catalysts facilitate […]

Solvent-induced reversible clustering of gold nanoparticles

Solvent-induced reversible clustering of gold nanoparticles

ChemistryCondensed matterMaterialsNanotechnology

By DIPC

Many methods can be used to synthesise non-molecular inorganic solids. Some solids can be prepared by a variety of routes but others, especially those that are not thermodynamically stable, may be much more difficult to prepare and may require special methods. Non-molecular inorganic solids can also be prepared in various forms, as fibres, films, foams […]

The flexibility of 2D silica

The flexibility of 2D silica

Condensed matterMaterialsNanotechnologyPhysics

By DIPC

Since the discovery that graphene, the two dimensional carbon allotrope, can be isolated and incorporated into electronic devices intense research efforts have been triggered. Driving forces usually mentioned behind the experimental and theoretical studies of graphene are the exceptional electronic properties, in particular the high electron mobilities, the long spin coherence lengths and the possibility […]

How to extract the interacting spectral function from a ground state DFT calculation

How to extract the interacting spectral function from a ground state DFT calculation

Condensed matterNanotechnologyPhysicsQuantum physicsTheoretical physics

By DIPC

The electronic wave function of an n-electron molecule depends on 3n spatial and n spin coordinates. In a sense, the wave function of a many-electron molecule contains more information than is needed and is lacking in direct physical significance. This has prompted the search for methods that involve fewer variables than the wave function and […]

Spin control using chemical design

Spin control using chemical design

ChemistryCondensed matterMaterialsNanotechnology

By DIPC

During the last decades, the electronics industry has been very successful in pushing forward the advancement of electronic building blocks, but the limit of silicon-based electronic devices especially in terms of miniaturization are almost reached. There are many ideas how to overcome this problem, for example, by adding functionality based on approaches originating from molecular […]

Mechanochemistry of nanographenes

Mechanochemistry of nanographenes

ChemistryCondensed matterMaterialsNanotechnology

By DIPC

Modern organic industrial chemistry started when William Henry Perkin serendipitously synthesized mauveine in 1856 while he was attempting the total synthesis of quinine. Since then, thousands of new organic products have been created in the laboratory for industrial purposes. Among them, in 1913, an orange-red pigment was found, first known as Vat Orange 3 dye […]