Nanotechnology

Schematic of a PT symmetry microring laser cavity

Lord of the microrings

10/31/14 Berkeley Lab — In a significant breakthrough in laser technology, scientists led by Xiang Zhang of Berkeley Engineering and Berkeley Lab have developed a unique microring laser cavity that can produce single-mode lasing even from a conventional multi-mode laser cavity.

UC Berkeley and Tsinghua University launch research and graduate education partnership

09/06/14 — UC Berkeley and Tsinghua University have signed an agreement to establish a joint institute in the city of Shenzhen in South China to promote research collaboration and graduate student education. First areas of focus for the institute will be nanotechnology and nanomedicine, low-carbon and new energy technologies, and data science and next-generation Internet.

Nanolasers on silicon to provide faster data transmission

07/14/14 LiveScience — New technology in development at Berkeley Engineering promises to ensure that fiber optic networks will be able to keep pace with consumer demand for speed and seamless data flow. The work, led by EECS professor Connie Chang-Hasnain, involves growing lasers (called nanoneedles) on silicon , the base layer of choice for electronic devices.

crystal orientations of 2D semiconductor membranes

Research on the literal edge of 2D semiconductors

05/01/14 Berkeley Lab — Researchers at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley, led by Professor Xiang Zhang of mechanical engineering, have recorded the first observations of a strong nonlinear optical resonance along the edges of single layers of molybdenum disulfide. The existence of these edge states is key to the use of molybdenum disulfide in nanoelectronics, as well as a catalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction in fuel cells, desulfurization and other chemical reactions.

Bacteria interacting with a nanostructure

Scientists show which surfaces attract clingy Staph bacteria

03/04/14 Berkeley Lab — Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley researchers are investigating how shapes and surface texture influence the adhesion of infectious Staphylococcus Aureus bacteria. Their work, led by Mohammad Mofrad, a Berkeley Lab faculty scientist and a professor of bioengineering and mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley, could guide the development of bacteria-resistant materials.

Engineers create light-activated ‘curtains’

01/09/14 — A research team led by UC Berkeley's Ali Javey, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences, used carbon nanotubes and plastic polycarbonate to create a new material that moves in response to light. The material can be used to create “smart curtains” that open or close with the flick of a light switch.

Bend it like Wu

11/01/13 — Materials science and engineering professor Junqiao Wu and Berkeley Lab colleagues have created a microscale actuator that's smaller than the width of a human hair and can bend like a finger.

Berkeley to house NSF-funded nanoscale microscope

09/20/13 QB3 — Researchers using a new tool in QB3-Berkeley's Biomolecular Nanotechnology Center will investigate matter on an unprecedented scale, thanks to a $2 million NSF grant for the purchase and installation of a new ORION Nanofab microscope.

Berkeley and Stanford launch nanofabrication partnership with TSI Semiconductors

08/15/13 — The College of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley announced that its Marvell Nanofabrication Laboratory, along with Stanford University's Nanofabrication Facility, has initiated a virtual technology transfer exercise with TSI Semiconductors, LLC, a specialty foundry offering flexible technology development and advanced manufacturing solutions for projects ranging from the smallest to very large lot sizes.

Researchers propose ‘neural dust’ to monitor brain from inside

07/17/13 ExtremeTech — Berkeley Engineering researchers have proposed a network of tiny implantable sensors that could function like an MRI inside the brain, recording data on nearby neurons and transmitting it back out. This long-lasting "neural dust," envisioned by graduate student Dongjin Seo and colleagues in EECS, would solve the problems of size and invasiveness posed by current brain imaging technologies.

Precious cargo

11/01/12 — Researcher Ting Xu's new nanocarrier delivers drugs directly to tumors, then disassembles to safely leave the body.

Self-assembling nanorods: Berkeley researchers obtain 1, 2 and 3D nanorod arrays and networks

02/01/12 Berkeley Lab — A relatively fast, easy and inexpensive technique for inducing nanorods to self-assemble into one-, two- and even three-dimensional macroscopic structures has been developed by a team of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researchers. Leading this project was Ting Xu, a polymer scientist who holds joint appointments with Berkeley Lab's Materials Sciences Division and UC Berkeley's Departments of Materials Science and Engineering, and Chemistry.

Driving toward millivolt electronics

12/01/11 EDN — Thanks to new behaviors and the characteristics of materials at small geometries, nanotechnology has the potential to introduce great change to the electronics arena. UC Berkeley's Center for E3S (Energy Efficient Electronics Science) is working to develop fundamental devices that will result in a millionfold reduction in power for future generations of electronic systems. EECS professor Eli Yablonovitch leads the research group, which focuses on nanoelectronics, nanomechanics, nanophotonics, nanomagnetics, and system integration.

Tracking the mighty microbe

08/18/11 — Jillian Banfield studies very, very small things, but her work is vast in its scope and impact. So vast, in fact, that her discoveries have implications for space, the human body and nearly everything in between. Banfield, a biogeochemist, geomicrobiologist and professor of materials science and engineering, studies microbes-their function and potential both individually and in groups. “Microorganisms are essentially everywhere,” says Banfield, “and they carry out all the really essential transformations that drive earth's biogeochemical cycles.”

Building the bio toolkit

05/04/11 — In the 1970s, the Berkeley-bred SPICE (Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis) revolutionized microelectronics by creating a toolkit now used worldwide as the standard for circuit design. Our new Synthetic Biology Institute (SBI), launched on April 25, aims to repeat this feat with biological and chemical engineering.

The laser whisperer

03/02/11 — A research team led by Xiang Zhang, professor of mechanical engineering and faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, has taken inspiration from the phenomena of whispering galleries - such as the U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall or Grand Central Terminal in New York - and their remarkable acoustical features to achieve a major scientific breakthrough in the use of plasmon lasers. By creating a technique to bounce surface plasmons inside of a nanosquare device, much in the way sound waves reflect back and forth in a whispering gallery, the team was able to operate plasmon lasers at room temperature, overcoming what had been a major barrier to practical utilization of the technology.

Laser-quick data transfer

02/14/11 Technology Review — Researchers have learned how to make lasers directly on microchips. The result could be computers that download large files much more quickly. Connie Chang-Hasnain, professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences at UC Berkeley, has overcome the incompatibility between silicon and laser materials by taking advantage of the properties of nanostructures and by carefully controlling the growth process.

Berkeley scientists create more efficient photocatalyst for use in clean technologies

01/29/11 AZoM — A little disorder goes a long way, especially when it comes to harnessing the sun's energy. Scientists from Berkeley Lab jumbled the atomic structure of the surface layer of titanium dioxide nanocrystals, creating a catalyst that is both long lasting and more efficient than all other materials in using the sun's energy to extract hydrogen from water. "We are trying to find better ways to generate hydrogen from water using sunshine," says Samuel Mao, a mechanical engineering professor and scientist in Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division who led the research.

Hotspots tamed by BEAST: Secrets of mysterious metal hotspots uncovered by new single molecule imaging technique

01/19/11 Berkeley Lab — The secrets behind the mysterious nano-sized electromagnetic "hotspots" that appear on metal surfaces under a light are finally being revealed with the help of a BEAST. Using the Brownian Emitter Adsorption Super-resolution Technique (BEAST), "we were able to map the electromagnetic field profile within a single hotspot as small as 15 nanometers with an accuracy down to 1.2 nanometers, in just a few minutes," says Xiang Zhang, a principal investigator with Berkeley Lab's Materials Sciences Division and the Ernest S. Kuh Endowed Chaired Professor of Mechanical Engineering at UC Berkeley.

Ultrathin alternative to silicon for future electronics

11/24/10 US News & World Report — There's good news in the search for the next generation of semiconductors. Researchers at UC Berkeley have successfully created a nanoscale transistor with excellent electronic properties. Led by Berkeley Engineering professor Ali Javey, they have successfully integrated ultra-thin layers of the semiconductor indium arsenide onto a silicon substrate to create a nanoscale transistor that offers several advantages as an alternative to silicon including superior electron mobility and velocity, which makes it an outstanding candidate for future high-speed, low-power electronic devices.