Metamaterials are artificial electromagnetic media achieved by introducing structuring on scales smaller than the wavelength of incident electromagnetic radiation.  As such, they have many unusual and useful properties.  Whereas conventional materials derive their optical characteristics from their constituent atoms and molecules, metamaterials enable us to design our own ‘meta-atoms’, and to thereby access new optical [...]

Energy storage has mainly focused on electrochemical systems.  However, more than 90% of the world’s primary energy generation is consumed or wasted thermally.  Thermal energy storage has a broad and critical role to play in making energy use more sustainable for heating and cooling, solar energy harvesting, and other applications.  Thermal storage technologies are still [...]

Materials researchers are hoping a technological ramp-up will help them calculate the properties of a near-infinite variety of solids to identify potential materials breakthroughs for batteries, solar cells, and many other applications.  Today’s computers aren’t yet able to simulate all types of materials.  But researchers think steady progress in technology has now made supercomputers powerful [...]

Micromechanical resonators are circuits tuned to particular frequencies that have broad application in electronic and communication systems.  Silicon-based resonators also have the advantage of economy by virtue of their compatibility with integrated-circuit fabrication technology.  A key issue for these resonators is a high quality (Q) factor (a key indicator of performance), which is essential for [...]

As integrated circuit manufacturers continue to push toward higher integration densities, one of the most promising candidate technologies to emerge is silicon-on-insulator (SOI) nanowire.  Its ultra-high index contrast permits ultra-sharp bending, while the CMOS compatibility of the fabrication process indicates great potential for use in low-cost photonics integrated circuits.  Significant progress toward the goal of [...]

Understanding how interdependence among systems affects cascading behaviors is increasingly important across many fields of science and engineering.  Inspired by cascades of load shedding in coupled electric grids and other infrastructure, we study the Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld sandpile model on modular random graphs and on graphs based on actual, interdependent power grids.  Starting from two isolated networks, [...]

Synthetic materials that are capable of autonomous healing upon damage are being developed at a rapid pace because of their many potential applications.  Despite these advancements, achieving self-healing in permanently cross-linked hydrogels has remained elusive because of the presence of water and irreversible cross-links.  Here, we demonstrate that permanently cross-linked hydrogels can be engineered to [...]

Silicon is one of the most important materials for modern electronics, telecom, and photovoltaic (PV) solar cells.  With the rapidly expanding use of Si in the global economy, it would be highly desirable to reduce the overall use of Si material, especially to make the PVs more affordable and widely used as a renewable energy [...]

If you want to speed up computers much more, you will need a faster messenger.  That is the idea behind silicon photonics, which whizzes data around a silicon chip using light instead of sluggish old electrons.  Photons already carry data in fiber-optic cables for telecommunications.  But using light in computing means carving transistors and lasers [...]

The features of alternative approach of non-equilibrium evolution thermodynamics are shown on the example of theory of vacancies by opposed to the classic prototype of Landau theory.  On this foundation a strict theory of the melting of metals, based on development of Frenkel ideas about the vacancy mechanism of such phenomena, is considered.  The phenomenon [...]