Volume 8 Issue 5, May 2013

Laser-cooled atoms are central to modern precision measurements and enable a wide variety of quantum technologies to be realized. Although significant progress has been made in miniaturizing room-temperature atomic sources, simplifying the optical set-up for atomic cooling and loading using technology capable of scalable production has proved difficult. Now, Arnold and colleagues have utilized microfabrication technology to create specialized semiconductor wafers (pictured), which diffract a single incoming laser beam into four appropriately polarized beams, creating a beam-overlap zone ideal for the trapping and cooling of atoms. These gratings similar to miniaturized Lego boards could be mass produced and require only a single alignment.

Letter p321 ; News & Views p317

IMAGE: ANDREW BROOKES, NPL

COVER DESIGN: ALEX WING

Correspondence

Correspondence | 07 May 2013

The European Union's chemical legislation needs revision
- Steffen Foss Hansen
Correspondence | 07 May 2013

Substance identification of nanomaterials not key to ensuring their safe use
- Antonio Tajani
Correspondence | 07 May 2013

A tiered approach
- Maxine J. McCall
- , Victoria A. Coleman
- & Craig M. Johnson
Correspondence | 07 May 2013

Nanoparticle dispersity in toxicology
- Mohammed Baalousha
- & Jamie R. Lead

Research Highlights

Research Highlights | 07 May 2013

Our choice from the recent literature

News & Views

News & Views | 28 April 2013

A stamp for all substrates

A sacrificial polymer layer can be used to transfer molecularly clean graphene onto arbitrary substrates, including thin layers of soft polymers.
- Jae-Young Choi
News & Views | 07 May 2013

Untangling nanowire assembly

A nanoscale combing technique can be used to straighten and align nanowires with exceptional precision.
- Nathan O. Weiss
- & Xiangfeng Duan
News & Views | 07 May 2013

Silicon for the future

Hyperpolarized silicon particles show high potential for in vivo magnetic resonance imaging.
- Joseph J. H. Ackerman
News & Views | 07 May 2013

Nanoparticles detect infection

Nucleic acid probes and magnetic nanoparticles can be used in combination with a miniaturized nuclear magnetic resonance device to quickly identify a bacterial species in clinical samples.
- Alan McNally
News & Views | 07 May 2013

Trapped by nanostructures

The design of specific nanostructured optical gratings allows the realization of efficient traps for a large number of cold atoms.
- Jérôme Estève
News & Views | 07 May 2013

Vortex states à la carte

The circulation direction of magnetization in magnetic vortices created in skewed nanodisks can be reversed using nanosecond field pulses.
- Riccardo Hertel

Correction

Correction | 07 May 2013

Correction

Letter

Letter | 07 April 2013

A surface-patterned chip as a strong source of ultracold atoms for quantum technologies

An atom chip that enables the integration of laser cooling and trapping is demonstrated.
- C. C. Nshii
- , M. Vangeleyn
- & A. S. Arnold
Letter | 28 April 2013

Direct observation and dynamics of spontaneous skyrmion-like magnetic domains in a ferromagnet

Direct observation of skyrmion-like excitations by Lorentz microscopy is reported for the first time in a ferromagnetic manganite.
- Masahiro Nagao
- , Yeong-Gi So
- & Koji Kimoto
Letter | 21 April 2013

A nanoscale combing technique for the large-scale assembly of highly aligned nanowires

Arrays of highly aligned nanowires and single-nanowire devices can be fabricated using a nanocombing technique in which the nanowires are anchored to a defined area of a surface and then drawn or combed out over a chemically distinct region of the surface.
- Jun Yao
- , Hao Yan
- & Charles M. Lieber
Letter | 14 April 2013

A biomimetic nanosponge that absorbs pore-forming toxins

A polymeric nanoparticle wrapped in natural membranes of red blood cells can absorb certain toxins and divert them from their cellular targets, offering a biologically inspired detoxification platform.
- Che-Ming J. Hu
- , Ronnie H. Fang
- & Liangfang Zhang

Article

Article | 21 April 2013

Dynamic switching of the spin circulation in tapered magnetic nanodisks

Switching of the spin circulation in a magnetic vortex is controlled by magnetic field pulses.
- V. Uhlíř
- , M. Urbánek
- & T. Šikola
Article | 28 April 2013

Using nanoscale thermocapillary flows to create arrays of purely semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes

Thermocapillary effects allow for the selective removal of metallic nanotubes from semiconducting ones, which occurs directly on a wafer substrate.
- Sung Hun Jin
- , Simon N. Dunham
- & John A. Rogers
Article | 28 April 2013

A general method for transferring graphene onto soft surfaces

A modification of the elastomer stamp method enables single-layer graphene to be transferred onto virtually any arbitrary surface, including ultrathin soft polymer layers.
- Jie Song
- , Fong-Yu Kam
- & Lay-Lay Chua
Article | 05 May 2013

In vivo magnetic resonance imaging of hyperpolarized silicon particles

Hyperpolarized silicon particles imaged in vivo by magnetic resonance imaging.
- M. C. Cassidy
- , H. R. Chan
- & C. M. Marcus
Article | 05 May 2013

A magneto-DNA nanoparticle system for rapid detection and phenotyping of bacteria

A magnetic detection assay based on nucleic acid probes and nanoparticles can rapidly identify a variety of bacterial species in clinical specimens with sensitivity down to single bacteria, offering a useful technology platform for point-of-care diagnostics.
- Hyun Jung Chung
- , Cesar M. Castro
- & Ralph Weissleder