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Light-Producing Nanotubes Could Mean Faster Chips

Posted by timothy on from the making-light-of-carbon dept.

CannibalBob writes "From PCWorld: Researchers at IBM have used carbon molecules to emit light, a breakthrough that could replace silicon as the foundation of chips and lead to faster computers and telecommunication equipment. This is the first time light has ever been generated from a molecule by applying electricity. Read the article."

11 of 181 comments (clear)

  1. First Time... by c_oflynn · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is the first time light has ever been generated from a molecule by applying electricity

    I always assumed with enough power ANYTHING could emit light.. if only for a brief time

    1. Re:First Time... by aSiTiC · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I believe that the point is that a single molecule is emitting light. A light bulb utilizes billions of molecules of tungsten to emit light.

      The whole point being that a carbon molecule/nanotube could be the equivalent of a light transistor in the optics world.

      --

      Where the Music Matters

  2. This is cool, but... by KCardoza · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wouldn't ignorant jackholes who read too many bad sci-fi novels like Bill Joy worry about these "Nanotubes" going haywire and turning the planet to gray goo? Or would Apple sue them into oblivion for using "Carbon" in a computer without their express permission?

    --
    Despite millions of years of evolution, human beings, taken as a group, are still stupid, panicky animals.
  3. You obviously don't do much grillin' by bearl · · Score: 5, Funny

    >This is the first time light has ever been generated from a molecule by applying electricity.

    Heck, if you put too much lighter fuel on the charcoal and apply your electric grill lighter while standing too close you'll see PLENTY of light from those charcoal molecules!

  4. What can't they do? by AlabamaMike · · Score: 5, Funny
    Self assembly, high tensile strength, readily available (at least for Carbon), and now light emitting! What is is that carbon nanotubes can't do? It seems everyday there's a new application for these things. I'm ready for the guys @ Highlift to buckle down and just get the space elevator done. Maybe while their at it, they could use the nanotube cable as some type of large transmission line for the Interplanetary Internet!

    -A.M.

    --
    Pimpin' all the Karma Hoes!
    1. Re:What can't they do? by Guppy06 · · Score: 5, Funny

      "What is is that carbon nanotubes can't do?"

      Be cheap.

  5. Getting the Facts on Light Emitting Carbon Nanotub by jscribner · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here's the detailed info on all this:
    IBM Research Light Emitting Carbon Nanotube news release

    There's also an animation, but the pictures in the release are easier to follow.

    --
    JS - IBM Metaverse devteam
    The opinions expressed here are mine & not necessarily representative of IBM
  6. Lemme think by TrekkieGod · · Score: 5, Funny
    Does EVERYTHING need to give us faster computers?

    Yes.

    --

    Warning: Opinions known to be heavily biased.

  7. Posted on physicsweb by parkanoid · · Score: 5, Informative

    Three days ago

  8. Re:Mass Production (of nanotubes) by wass · · Score: 5, Informative
    yes, nanotech is currently one of the 'sexy' topics, and so every two months (or more often, usually) someone gets to publish their new fabrication or measurement technique.

    I'm a graduate physics student (experimentalist), and I'll be working with nanotubes. But we're just building up our lab now (my advisor just arrived here only a few months ago). We'll be doing measurements with carbon nanotubes, initially continuing what we did last summer (at her old postdoc lab) by measuring superconducting nanowires. If you're curious, these nanowires are created by sputtering a superconducting alloy (MoGe) on top of a nanotube substrate. They're interesting because the system dimensions are small enough that the wires are effectively one-dimensional, which means they can't support long-range order and thus cannot allow Cooper-pair supercurrents to flow unimpeded through the wire.

    It's hard to create nanotubes, and harder to put them where you want them. One way to create them is to use chemical vapor deposition (CVD), where you basically try to create a controlled environment where some hydrocarbon (eg methane) is ignited (the environment is somewhat oxygen-deficient so CO2 isn't the only carbon species produced) The 'soot' that is subsequently deposited on your substrate should contain nanotubes if the right conditions are met.

    To get the tubes in certain places, sometimes little 'seeds' of iron particles are used, in hopes the nanotubes will grow/branch from them. It's hard to create good SWNT (Single-Walled Nanotubes), but easier to form 'ropes' of many nanotubes intertwined together.

    Another difficult factor to control is the 'chirality' of the tube. Basically, a carbon nanotube is a rolled graphite sheet, but when the sheet is rolled, it can have certain 'twist' to it. For example, if you rolled lined paper into a cylinder, you can have zero helicity, in which case your lines will form independent circles. Or you can shift the lines by an integer number, in which case the lines will form helices of varying pitch. This factor in nanotubes determines the electronic band structure, which mandates whether the tubes are metallic or semiconducting. It would be highly desirable to be able to produce consistently tubes of the same chirality.

    I hope this makes sense, I was up all night doing E&M homework (ya gotta love Jackson), so my brain is kinda fried right now.

    --

    make world, not war

  9. Isn't it felicitous... by BigBadBri · · Score: 5, Interesting
    that these nanotubes happen to emit at around 1500nm, which is a good wavelength for fibre optics?

    Thinking about it, would it not be feasible to make them emit harmonics (375nm blue, anyone?) for use in optical storage too?

    I'm just a dumb old maths guy, not a physicist, but surely someone can enlighten us?

    --
    oh brave new world, that has such people in it!