Browse Physics

A new theory on the interactions of nanoparticles with laser light predicts some surprising effects when more than one particle is involved, such as a particle being drawn toward the source of the beam, against the flow of photons.

In the near future, a vibrating bar could be made small enough and cold enough to violate Newton’s laws and behave quantum mechanically, according to calculations.

A new technique extracts 3-D info from flat, nanoscale images, potentially leading to high-speed, 3-D movies.

Computer simulations show how to controllably assemble nanoscale icosahedrons and other polyhedra from prickly spheres of polymer.

Researchers have directly imaged lead atoms as they rearrange and undergo a phase transition.

Zinc oxide nano-needles form the smallest “whispering galleries” for visible light ever created.

In carbon nanotubes, researchers can control precisely where electrons fall into holes to produce light. The effect promises new insights into these superstars of nanotechnology.

A few hundred atoms of silicon can form a novel not-quite-crystalline solid, theorists predict.

A simple nanomachine propels itself through liquid simply by changing its length.

Two different materials exhibit extreme slipperiness at the atomic scale.

A theory proposes that three tiny spheres can concentrate light into a small space and intensify it by a million times.

Bombardment by protons can turn ordinary graphite into an unusually simple artificial magnet.

Stretching a carbon nanotube can raise or lower its electrical resistance, depending on how the electrons’ quantum states are altered.

Laser light tuned to resonate with the internal energy levels of particles may point the way to size- and shape-selective sorting at the nanoscale.

Carbon particles combining diamond and buckyball structures could form tomorrow’s optoelectronics.

A quantum mechanical effect seems to explain amplification in a component that might replace transistors in nanoscale circuits.

A nanoscale, cone-shaped tunnel through a barrier can pump ions through, reminiscent of a biological pump.

A new x-ray imaging technique has made its first foray into the third dimension.

A new study gives the most detailed pictures yet of an industrially useful nanoscale sponge.

Inherently imperfect nanotech components might work together to make a useful product.