74 nanotimes News in Brief

Yoshiyuki Miyamoto, Dynamic Process Simulation Group, the Nanosystem Research Institute of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), has performed the first-principles simulations to show that an ultra-short laser pulse can induce electron excitation which activates synchronized rotational motion of two acetylene molecules encapsulated in a semiconducting carbon nanotube using the Earth Simulator of Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology. The motion cannot be realized when acetylene molecules are in a gas phase. The simulation also showed that the excitation can be preserved with a reactive configuration of the acetylene molecules. This work is expected to contribute to new chemical synthesis achieved by combining a femtosecond laser and carbon nanotubes.

Image: Two acetylene molecules encapsulated in a semiconducting carbon nanotube (top) and synchronized rotational motion of the molecules in the carbon nanotube after laser irradiation (bottom). (The display of nanotube structures during the molecular rotation was omitted.) © AIST

Yoshiyuki Miyamoto, Hong Zhang, and Angel Rubio: Pulse-induced nonequilibrium dynamics of acetylene inside carbon nanotube studied by an ab initio approach, In: PNAS, Vol. 109, No. 23, June 5, 2012, Pages 8861-8865, DOI:10.1073/pnas.1204388109:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1204388109

http://www.aist.go.jp/

The sixth flight of Gamera II, the second human powered helicopter from the University of Maryland‘s Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center. Video evidence suggests the helicopter, piloted by Colin Gore, flew for approximately 40 seconds.

http://youtu.be/S-k-3efasOk