New Nanostructures, Laser Applications Part of Colloquium

CONTACT: Lia Unrau
PHONE: (713) 831-4793
E-MAIL: unrau@rice.edu

NEW NANOSTRUCTURES, LASER APPLICATIONS PART OF COLLOQUIUM

Science that supports nanotechnology and new optical methods and spectroscopy
are among the topics to be presented at the Rice Quantum Institute’s 10th Annual
Summer Research Colloquium Aug. 23. The one-day meeting will offer a broad
overview of 58 presentations and posters of experimental and theoretical
results. They will include:

• New advances that will make possible detection of trace gases in airplane
  cabins, spacecraft and high-rise office buildings with sealed windows. Advances
  in laser spectroscopy that will open new doors for optical detection and
  measurement are allowing researchers to adapt simple solidstate lasers to urban
  and industrial applications. The small diode lasers can be made to help measure
  minuscule concentrations of chemicals and gases. They could also be used as
  inexpensive sensors to monitor air quality to detect methane emissions from rice
  fields, or to monitor industrial pollution around the perimeter of an oil
  refinery or other chemical plant.

• Researchers have just revealed that super-strong carbon nanotubes of a
  specific geometry can be uniformly grown in useful quantities, the next step in
  bringing nanoscale products to market. These carbon fibers are predicted to be
  as much as 100 times stronger than steel. Results reported at the conference
  show that these carbon tubes, slightly more than one nanometer in diameter, are
  also excellent conductors of electricity, and represent the smallest known
  man-made “wire.”

• High performance infrared lasers used in communication technology may get a
  boost from a new nanoscale creation. A group will report the fabrication of
  nanoscale “malted milk balls,” or semiconducting nanocrystals, known as quantum
  dots, encased in gold. The gold shell, approximately two nanometers thick,
  alters the wavelength produced by the semiconducting center, creating an
  infrared spectrum. The result is promising for future applications in
  laser-based communications.

For more information contact Lia Unrau, science editor, at (713) 831-4793, unrau@rice.edu.

###