A key challenge in nanotechnology research is in knowing how different materials behave with lengths of only "one billionth of a meter." When reduced to such tiny sizes, many everyday materials show new interesting and potentially beneficial properties. Now a group of Rensselaer engineers have discovered new hybrid nanostructures that could pave the way for new data storage devices, as well as improvements in drug delivery systems.
The magnetic behavior is a kind of phenomenon that can significantly change depending on the size of the material. However, the great challenge of the observation of the magnetic properties of nanoscale materials has prevented further study of the topic.
The magnetic behavior is a kind of phenomenon that can significantly change depending on the size of the material. However, the great challenge of the observation of the magnetic properties of nanoscale materials has prevented further study of the topic.
Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed and demonstrated a new method for detecting the magnetic behavior of nanomaterials. They created a new process to create a single multi-layer carbon nanotube is embedded with cobalt nanostructures. Cobalt clusters have measurements ranging between 1 and 10 nanometers.
After a series of experiments, engineering team has concluded that the electrical conductivity of carbon nanotubes is sensitive enough to detect and be affected by traces of magnetic activity, such as those found in cobalt incorporated in the nanostructures. This was demonstrated in the first detection of magnetic fields of these little individual magnets through a carbon nanotube.
Full results of the study are detailed in an article entitled, "Detection of nano-scale magnetic activity through a single carbon nanotube," recently published by the journal Nano Letters. "
Because groups of cobalt in this system are embedded inside the nanotube rather than on the surface, this does not cause the scattering of electrons and therefore do not appear to affect the attractiveness of host conductive properties carbon nanotubes. From a generic point of view, these hybrid nanostructures belong to a new class of magnetic materials.
These new hybrid nanostructures open up new avenues of research in applied physics only, thus paving the way for greater functionality in carbon nanotubes using magnetic electronics with a great degree of freedom, can lead to important applications spintronics.
The possible applications of this material for new generations of nanoscale conductivity sensors will lead to new advances in digital storage devices, as well as further development of spintronics, which will provide new applications in medical fields .
Source: http://www.fierasdelaingenieria.com/nanoestructuras-hibridas-detectan-magnetismo-en-la-nanoescala/
Mario Pedraza Electronics Solid State Section 2
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