TechBlog

Nanophotonics is living up to the hype. The study of light on the nanoscale might have been a ‘buzzword’ within optics circles a couple of years ago, but this tiny science is now moving away from the world of theoretical science and new research facilities are popping up in laboratories around the world.

And, with it, nanophotonics brings a myriad of new nano-prefixed buzzwords, including nanocapacitors, nanoforests, nanorice and nanoshells. But the real buzz is around the applications that using light as a tool on the submicron scale could open up.

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Background

Boron nitride is a synthetic material, which although discovered in the early 19^th century was not developed as a commercial material until the latter half of the 20^th century. Boron and nitrogen are neighbours of carbon in the periodic table - in combination boron and nitrogen have the same number of outer shell electrons - the atomic radii of boron and nitrogen are similar to that of carbon. It is not surprising therefore that boron nitride and carbon exhibit similarity in their crystal structure.

In the same way that carbon exists as graphite and diamond, boron nitride can be synthesised in hexagonal and cubic forms.

Continue reading ‘Ceramic - Boron nitride’ »