News by Subject Technology & Engineering

Graphene Flagship researchers reach the ultimate level of light confinement -- the space of one atom. This will pave the way to ultra-small optical switches, detectors and sensors.

Joint research between Tampere University of Technology, (Finland) and University of Tübingen (Germany) has shown that carefully structured light and matching arrangements of metal nanostructures can be combined to alter the properties of the generated light at the nanometer scale. The teams have shown that the efficiency of nonlinear optical fields generated from the oligomers is strongly influenced by how the constituents of the oligomer constituents are illuminated by structured light.

Cancer immune cell therapy has made headlines with astounding successes like saving former US President Jimmy Carter from brain cancer. But immunotherapy has also had many tragic flops. Georgia Tech researchers working to optimize the innovative treatment have implanted a genetic switch that activates T-cells when they are inside of tumors. Remote-control light waves resembling those used in a TV remote combine with gold nanorods to flip the switch.

An improved performance (activity, selectivity and stability) catalyst for the LA hydrogenation reaction is developed based on carbon supported ruthenium with low metal particle size (1.2 nm).

Researchers at Aalto University and Cambridge University have made a significant breakthrough in computational science by combining atomic-level modelling and machine learning. For the first time, the method has been used to realistically model how an amorphous material is formed at the atomic level: that is, a material that does not have a regular crystalline structure. The approach is expected to have impact on the research of many other materials.

ICFO researchers, in collaboration with MIT and University of Minho, are able to confine and guide light down to a space of 1-atom thick in dimension. Graphene and 2-D materials have been key ingredients in the development of this atom-scale Lego that can channel light. The study has been published in Science.