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nanotimes News in Brief

‘on camera’ the chemical reaction of the transition metal atom with the nanotube in real time at the atomic level using the latest Aberration-Corrected High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (AC-HRTEM). Their videos show nanotubes with a diameter of around 1.5nm, while the NanoBuds are just 1nm across.

Thomas W. Chamberlain, Jannik C. Meyer, Johannes Bis- kupek, Jens Leschner, Adriano Santana, Nicholas A. Bes- ley, Elena Bichoutskaia, Ute Kaiser & Andrei N. Khloby- stov: Reactions of the inner surface of carbon nanotubes and nanoprotrusion processes imaged at the atomic sca- le, In: Nature Chemistry, Vol. 3(2011), No. 9, September 2011, Pages 732-737, DOI:10.1038/nchem.1115: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1115

A. Chuvilin,E. Bichoutskaia, M. C. Gimenez-Lopez, T. W. Chamberlain, G. A. Rance, N. Kuganathan, J. Biskupek, U. Kaiser4, A. N. Khlobystov: Self-assembly of a sulphur- terminated graphene nanoribbon within a single-walled carbon nanotube, In: Nature Materials, Vol. 10(2011), No. 9, September 2011, Pages 687-692, DOI:10.1038/ nmat3082:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nmat3082 http://www.soton.ac.uk

11-08 :: August 2011

nides. These materials bridge the gap between glasses, such as those that form our optical fibre networks, and semiconductors, such as the silicon chip. Chalcogenides are already in use for thin-film and fibre waveguides, switching, light emission and amplification while electronic applications, such as phase-change memory, are leading the way in microelectronics.

Professor Dan Hewak, project leader from the ORC, says: “We expect this project to generate con- siderable attention in both research and industrial communities. This research will stimulate interest in further electrical and optical applications of chal- cogenides on a local and international scale, parti- cularly as we move towards commercial realisation. Many of the device goals, such as LEDs, photodio- des, photovoltaic cells, optical amplifiers, switches, logic gates and memory cells will be of great interest to large electronics companies.”

The ORC has long established links with leading international companies including BAE Systems, Qinetiq, Ilika Technologies, Gooch & Housego and IBM.

The University of Southampton’s Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), in collaboration with the Universities of Surrey and Cambridge, U.K., is pioneering research that will develop functionality of new materials such as amorphous chalcoge-

13-year-old Aidan Dwyer designed efficient solar array inspired by oak trees. He designed and built his own test model, copying the Fibonacci pattern of an oak tree. The project won him a 2011 Young