Friday, 6th January 2006 (4611 views)

New nanoscale research into the reflective properties of gold could lead to the development of new optical chips and have other fibre optic applications.

The research is being carried out at a microscopic level at the US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, where scientists are investigating what type of light is emitted when electrons are stimulated in gold nanorods.

As a result of the studies the research team has concluded that it is possible to control the wavelength of the light emitted from gold nanorods, meaning that they could have applications as optical chip light sources.

Explaining the team's findings research leader, Gary Wiederrecht, said: "The light emitted is dependent on the shape of the gold nanorods."

Nanoscale research is carried out on materials measured in nanometres, around 70,000 times less than the width of a human hair, which is equal to one-billionth of a metre.

Gold nanorods measure approximately 20 nanometres in width and between 70 and 300 nanometres in length.

 

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