Imagine pointing your smartphone at a salty snack you found at the back of your pantry and immediately knowing if its ingredients had turned rancid. Devices called spectrometers can detect dangerous chemicals based on a unique “fingerprint” of absorbed and emitted light. But these light-splitting instruments have long been both bulky and expensive, preventing their…
New Crystal Splits Light More Dramatically than Any on Earth
Place a chunk of the clear mineral Iceland spar on top of an image and suddenly you’ll see double, thanks to a phenomenon called double refraction — a result of a quality of the crystal material called optical anisotropy. Beyond just a nifty trick, materials with optical anisotropy are vital for a variety of devices…
Best Ever at Splitting Light, New Material Could Improve LEDs, Solar Cells, Optical Sensors
Place a chunk of the clear mineral Iceland spar on top of an image and suddenly you’ll see double, thanks to a phenomenon called double refraction—a result of a quality of the crystal material called optical anisotropy. Beyond just a nifty trick, materials with optical anisotropy are vital for a variety of devices such as…
Imperfections Create Better-Behaved Quantum Dots
Potentially paving the way toward advanced computers, lasers, or optical devices, University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have revealed new effects in tiny electronic devices called quantum dots. In their work, published recently in the journal Nano Letters, the researchers developed and applied analysis methods that will help answer other challenging questions for developing electronic materials. “We…
Fingertip Sensors Offer Better Breast Exams
Computer Chips Bridge Gap Between Computation and Storage
Computer chips in development at the University of Wisconsin-Madison could make future computers more efficient and powerful by combining tasks usually kept separate by design. Jing Li, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at UW-Madison, is creating computer chips that can be configured to perform complex calculations and store massive amounts of information…
Innovative Technique Hastens Development of Cheap Chemical Sensors
University of Wisconsin-Madison chemical engineers have developed a new way to create inexpensive chemical sensors for detecting explosives, industrial pollutants or even the chemical markers of disease in a patient’s breath. Manos Mavrikakis and Nicholas L. Abbott, UW-Madison professors of chemical and biological engineering, combined their expertise in computational chemistry and liquid crystals to turn…
Inexpensive, Powerful Fuel Cells Result from Simulating Complex Catalysts
Using a unique combination of advanced computational methods, University of Wisconsin-Madison chemical engineers have demystified some of the complex catalytic chemistry in fuel cells — an advance that brings cost-effective fuel cells closer to reality. “Understanding reaction mechanisms is the first step toward eventually replacing expensive platinum in fuel cells with a cheaper material,” says…
Miniscule High-performance Solar Cells to Revolutionize Power Generation
University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers have created high-performance, micro-scale solar cells that outshine comparable devices in key performance measures. The miniature solar panels could power myriad personal devices — wearable medical sensors, smartwatches, even autofocusing contact lenses. Large, rooftop photovoltaic arrays generate electricity from charges moving vertically. The new, small cells, described in the journal Advanced…