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Image: Federico Capasso (left), Patrice Genevet (right), and an international team of colleagues have demonstrated a new type of tightly controlled light wave that could eliminate signal loss in on-chip optical devices. © Eliza Grinnell, SEAS Communications
Jiao Lin, Jean Dellinger, Patrice Genevet, Benoit Cluzel, Frederique de Fornel, and Federico Capasso: Cosine- Gauss Plasmon Beam: A Localized Long-Range Nondiffracting Surface Wave, In: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 109, Issue 9, Article 093904 [5 pages], DOI: 10.1103/ PhysRevLett.109.093904 http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v109/i9/e093904
Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University’s Biological Systems Unit is one of the research groups in Japan now working on making waste-fueled microbial fuel cells (MFCs) cheap and efficient enough for real-world applications. The Nanoparticles by Design Unit is working with the Biological Systems Unit to build and test new types of nanoparticle-studded electrodes. The idea is to coat a core of cheap material with a very thin layer of a more expensive, biocompatible metal, then stick the resulting nanoparticles onto the surface of a carbon electrode. In addition to harnessing the properties of the expensive metal at minimal cost, this will increase the surface area of the electrode so that it can host more electricity-generating bacteria.
http://www.oist.jp/groups/nanoparticles-design-unit-mukhles-ibrahim-sowwan
Researcher at Rice University (USA), and Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium), report an approach to roll out Li-ion battery components from silicon chips by a continuous and repeatable etch-infiltrate-peel cycle. They demonstrate an operational full cell 3.4 V lithium-polymer silicon nanowire (LIPOSIL) battery which is mechanically flexible and scalable to large dimensions.