Volume 7 - October-December 2009
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Story 1 - 5/10/2009
Plasmon Harvesting: A Route to Plasmonic Circuitry
What cannot be seen can often be felt, even in the case of physics. Invisible electromagnetic oscillations, known as surface plasmons, trapped inside a nanowire can now be detected by converting them into an electrical current.
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Story 2 - 13/10/2009
What a Molecular Transistor!
How far can a single, tiny molecule go? Exceeding most people's imagination, researchers have shown that a single molecule can actually work as a transistor for photons.
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Story 3 - 27/10/2009
Magnetic Break Up
We usually think of the north and south magnetic poles as an inseparable couple. Experiments have now shown that under the appropriate conditions they can, in fact, break up.
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Story 4 - 4/11/2009 - THE VIEWPOINT by Banqiu Wu & Ajay Kumar
Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography: Towards the Next Generation of Integrated Circuits
Lithography is the most challenging technology in the semiconductor industry. The most promising next generation lithography technology is extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL). EUVL was proposed long ago, in 1988, but its implementation has been postponed several times. Presently, most "showstoppers" are gone, but there are still several challenges that need to be addressed. The semiconductor industry is now getting ready to use EUVL in a pre-production phase, and EUVL might be implemented for 32 nm and 22 nm technological nodes. High volume manufacturing EUVL printers will be delivered to multiple end-users from 2010.
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Story 5 - 16/11/2009
The Smallest Laser Ever
A year before the 50th anniversary of the invention of the laser, laser physicists present a new breakthrough: the nanolaser. It is the smallest laser ever, which makes a whole new range of applications in nanophotonics possible.
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Story 6 - 27/11/2009
The Dawn of Scalable Quantum Computers
How close are we to the quantum computational revolution? Quantum computers promise drastic speedups for tackling the most complex mathematical problems. Nonetheless, current precursors of quantum computers cannot be scaled efficiently to reasonably sized systems. Now, researchers have realized a new setup that can be scaled more easily than ever before.
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Story 7 - 14/12/2009
Two Colors is Better than One
Standard optical fibers have revolutionized our lives. Now new perspectives can be envisioned for a new generation of photonic crystal fibers capable of transmitting two different colors at the same time.
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Story 8 - 22/12/2009
Colors Beyond the Noise
We need eyes to see, but we need contrast to discern. A new technique for optical microscopy can now detect molecules even when their fluorescence is overwhelmed by background noise.
