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message from the department chair
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Looking ahead
January 31, 2012 - ECE Distinguished Lecture Series
FEATURED STORY
Rice University physicist Junichiro Kono (left) and graduate student Erik Hároz Rice University researchers tag excitons in search for hues' clues Rice University researchers knew the bright colors they saw in their purified armchair nanotubes were unique.They realized gold and silver nanoparticles could be manipulated to reflect brilliant hues – a property that let artisans who had no notions of "nano” create stained glass windows for medieval cathedrals. Depending on their size, the particles absorbed and emitted light of particular colors due to a phenomenon known as plasma resonance. In more recent times, researchers noticed semiconducting nanoparticles, also known as quantum dots, show colors determined by their size-dependent band gaps. But plasma resonance happens at wavelengths outside the visible spectrum in metallic carbon nanotubes. And armchair nanotubes don't have band gaps. Something else was up. The Rice lab of physicist Junichiro Kono ultimately determined that "excitons" are the source of color in batches of pure armchair nanotubes suspended in solution. The study by graduate student and lead author Erik Hároz; Kono, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and of physics and astronomy; and their co-authors appears in the online edition of the Journal of the American Chemical Society. |
Save the Date 04.04.2011
Annual Affiliates Meeting - New Initiatives for Rice ECE
08:00AM in Duncan Hall 
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Duncan Hall 2046
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
George R. Brown School of Engineering
George R. Brown School of Engineering
Rice University
MS - 366 6100 Main Street
Houston, Texas
MS - 366 6100 Main Street
Houston, Texas