The radiation detector (10) comprises a scintillator (15) having a first refractive index (n.sub.s) for converting incident radiation (RR) received at a first side (S1) of the radiation detector (10) into converted radiation (CR), a photosensor (20) for receiving the converted radiation (CR) from the scintillator (15), and an optical coating layer (25) arranged between the scintillator (15) and the photosensor (20). The scintillator (15) has regions (RR) arranged for being imaged, when impinged by the incident radiation (RR), onto corresponding regions of the photosensor (20). The optical coating layer (25) has a second refractive index (n.sub.o) lower than the first refractive index (n.sub.s) for reflecting the converted radiation (CR) resulting from the incident radiation (RR) impinged on a particular region (A1) of the scintillator (15) and received by a region (A3) of the optical coating layer (25) corresponding to a photosensor region different from the imaged one (A2).

The membrane of a conventional solid-state nanopore device, which is believed to be promising for understanding the structural characteristics of DNA and determining a nucleotide sequence, has been thick, and the accuracy in determining a nucleotide sequence in the DNA chain has been insufficient. A method characterized by forming a membrane by forming a first film on a first substrate having a surface of Si, then forming a hole in the first film in such a manner that the surface of the first substrate is exposed, then forming a second film on the first film and on the surface of the first substrate and then etching the first substrate with a solution which does not remove the second film.

Disclosed is an apparatus for manufacturing a carbon nanotube fiber.

An imaging device and method of using is provided that requires no traditional optics but uses an addressable array of vertically oriented carbon nanotubes. The technique relies on the ability to reduce the nearest neighbor spacing between the carbon nanotubes to less than the wavelength of light used in traditional optical microscopes. The nanoscope can have a resolution of less than 100 nm. Electrophoresis deposition can be used to direct the assembly of the carbon nanotubes onto interconnects in an integrated circuit, which could be used to address the array. The device is portable, compact, and does not utilize complicated components. It also derives spatially resolved dielectric and chemical properties of a sample to be imaged.

Noble metal-coated nanostructures and related methods are disclosed. According to an aspect, a nanostructure may include a structure comprising a base metal. As an example, the structure may be a nanowire. In a more specific example, the structure may be a copper nanowire or a nanowire made of a base metal such as nickel, tin, indium, zinc, the like, or combinations thereof. The base metal structure may be coated with a noble metal that conformally covers the base metal structure. Example noble metals include, but are not limited to, ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, silver, iridium, platinum, and gold. The coating may be made of one or more of the noble metals along with other materials.

A method of forming a thin film structure involves performing one or more repetitions to form a template on a wafer. The repetitions include: depositing a layer of a template material to a first thickness T1; and ion beam milling the layer of the template material to remove thickness T2, where T2<T1, resulting in a layer of the template material with thickness T1−T2. The ion beam milling is performed at a channeling angle relative to a deposition plane of the wafer, the channeling angle defined relative to a channeling direction of a crystalline microstructure of the template material. After the repetitions, additional material is deposited on the template to form a final structure. The additional material has a same crystalline microstructure as the template material.

The invention includes miniature dots, miniature disks or miniature cylinders and methods of making the same by dispersing a particle in or on a dissolvable, meltable or etchable layer on a substrate, a portion of the particle exposed above a surface of the dissolvable, meltable or etchable layer; depositing a mask on the particles and the dissolvable substrate; removing the particles from the layer; etching an array of nanoholes in the substrate; depositing one or more metallic layers into the nanoholes to form an array of dots, disks or cylinders; and dissolving the dissolvable layer with a solvent to expose the dots, disks or cylinders. The dots, disks or cylinders can be included with two sets of microelectrodes for ultrahigh speed rotation of miniature motors, and/or can be designed with a magnetic configuration into miniature motors for uniform rotation speeds and prescribed angular displacement. The invention also includes modified diatom frustules, and miniature motors containing modified diatom frustules.

A method of arranging nanocrystals is provided, which includes a first process of putting barium titanate nanocrystals and/or strontium titanate nanocrystals, and a nonpolar solvent into a container, a second process of collecting a supernatant liquid including the barium titanate nanocrystals and/or the strontium titanate nanocrystals from the container, and a third process of immersing a substrate having an uneven structure into the supernatant liquid, and pulling up the substrate so as to coat the surface of the uneven structure with the supernatant liquid by using a capillary phenomenon, and to arrange the nanocrystals on the uneven structure.

A method of arranging nanocrystals is provided, which includes a first process of putting barium titanate nanocrystals and/or strontium titanate nanocrystals, and a nonpolar solvent into a container, a second process of collecting a supernatant liquid including the barium titanate nanocrystals and/or the strontium titanate nanocrystals from the container, and a third process of immersing a substrate having an uneven structure into the supernatant liquid, and pulling up the substrate so as to coat the surface of the uneven structure with the supernatant liquid by using a capillary phenomenon, and to arrange the nanocrystals on the uneven structure.

This invention provides a continuous process for the growth of vapor grown carbon fiber (VGCNT) reinforced continuous fiber preforms for the manufacture of articles with useful mechanical, electrical, and thermal characteristics. Continuous fiber preforms are treated with a catalyst or catalyst precursor and processed without vaporization of the preform to yield VGCNT produced in situ resulting in a highly entangled mass of VGCNT infused with the continuous fiber preform. The continuous process disclosed herein provides denser and more uniform carbon nanotubes and provides the opportunity to fine-tune the variables both within an individual preform and between different preforms depending on the characteristics of the carbon nanotubes desired. The resulting continuous fiber preforms are essentially endless and are high in volume fraction of VGCNT and exhibit high surface area useful for many applications. The invention also provides for composites made from the preforms.