Breakthrough in nonlinear optics research

A method to selectively enhance or inhibit optical nonlinearities in a chip-scale device has been developed by scientists, led by the University of Sydney. The researchers from the Centre for Ultrahigh bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems, (CUDOS) based at the University of Sydney published their results in today ("Enhancing and inhibiting stimulated...

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Solar cells get growth boost

Researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University's (OIST) Energy Materials and Surface Sciences Unit have found that growing a type of film used to manufacture solar cells in ambient air gives it a growth boost. The finding, which could make manufacturing solar cells significantly cheaper, was published in ("Influence...

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Nanoparticles - Shaken, not stirred, is best for cancer imaging

James Bond liked his martini to be ‘shaken not stirred’, and now A*STAR researchers have found that shaking, rather than stirring, also produces better nanoparticles for bioimaging — with important implications for spying on cancer. Fluorescent probes currently used for bioimaging (for example, cadmium selenide quantum dots) fluoresce brightly enough...

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Cheap, environmentally friendly solar cells are produced by minimizing disruptive surface layers

By tailoring the interface between the two sections of a solar cell, A*STAR researchers have produced a high-performance solar cell from the abundant and cheap materials of copper (II) oxide and silicon ("p-CuO/n-Si heterojunction solar cells with high open circuit voltage and photocurrent through interfacial engineering"). For solar energy to become...

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