Characterization

Video of the week – S.K. Sundaram on the use of non-contact methods, such as FTIR, to measure materials properties

By / July 8, 2009

S.K. Sundaram is chief materials scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Lab. In this short video, he discusses several non-contact methods of taking materials measurements. In particular, Sundaram describes the…

Read More

Bismuth-telluride discovery brings spintronics devices closer

By / July 7, 2009

Researchers at the DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University think they have a nifty new material that could unleash a new generation of spintronics applications, providing quicker and…

Read More

Strides made in nanotube-based mass measurements

By / July 4, 2009

According to the ICT Results website, researchers at a European Union-sponsored project say their method to use carbon nanotubes to measure masses at the atomic level is improving. European researchers…

Read More

Unique science-art meeting next week in Arlington, VA

By / June 29, 2009

A few weeks ago, Ceramic Tech Weekly carried a story about new techniques for dating ceramic artifacts. Along these same lines, there is a fascinating-sounding meeting, “Chemistry and Materials Research…

Read More

SNL, Pitt discover salt’s ability to “stretch” at nano level

By / June 29, 2009

Conventional thinking says that a block of salt can’t stretch, but researchers from Sandia National Laboratories and the University of Pittsburgh are saying they aren’t so sure anymore. In an…

Read More

Miscellaneous industry headlines

By / June 24, 2009

SCI Engineered Materials receives $1 million thin film solar order Thresher Industries selects the Cal Poly’s materials engineering program to set up testing protocol Bekaert introduces one-piece rotatable AZO target…

Read More

Aerogel has potential as tunable waveplate

By / June 22, 2009

A multinational team has published a paper that suggests aerogels could be used as tunable waveplates “in a broad spectral range.” Pradeep Bhupathi, Rodica M. Martin, Lukas Jaworski, David B.…

Read More

Video of the week – SLAC’s X-ray laser achieves “first light”

By / June 17, 2009

Materials research got a great new tool in late April when the Linac Coherent Light Source high-energy laser came to life at the SLAC National Accelerator Lab in Menlo Park,…

Read More

Video of the week – Cracking a Safe With Glass Relockers

By / June 7, 2009

Never heard of “glass relockers”? That’s okay. Most people haven’t. Relockers are a category of devices intended to block a burglary of a safe. As their name implies, they relock…

Read More

Europium’s superconductivity discovered

By / June 7, 2009

A duo from Washington University in St. Louis reports they have for the first time found a way to tap superconductivity properties of europium. In work funded by the materials…

Read More