Time-resolved
spectroscopy comes of age
It is possible
to learn a lot about a sample by exciting
it with a pulsed laser and using a very fast
detector to measure the resulting emissions
and decay as a function of time. Ultrafast
lasers and pulse-shaping techniques have
helped open up new applications.
Bottling the hydrogen
genie
If
hydrogen is to replace gasoline for road
transport, a means to store useful quantities
of hydrogen on-board the vehicle must be
found. Storage as a liquid, as a gas, or
in metal hydrides all have serious limitations.
Simplifying
carbon nanotube identification
A
new method has been found to identify and
classify various structural forms of carbon
nanotubes, each with its characteristic electronic
properties, in a typical mixture, using spectrofluorimetry
Zero thermal
expansion
An
intermetallic, electrically conducting compound---ytterbium-gallium-germanium---exhibits
near-zero thermal expansion because, when
cooled, the crystal cell stretches in one
direction and contracts in another, maintaining
the same volume.
