Submitted via IRC for Fnord666
Researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) have fabricated a novel glass and synthetic diamond foundation that can be used to create miniscule micro- and nanostructures. This new substrate is low cost and leaves minimal waste, the researchers say, in a study published in Diamond and Related Materials.
"We've spent the last couple of decades throwing away plastics," said Stoffel Janssens, the first author of the study, and a member of OIST's Mathematics, Mechanics, and Materials Unit. "With sustainable materials like diamond and glass, we're minimizing negative environmental impacts."
Current processes in place for micro- and nanodevice fabrication can be costly and inefficient. Synthetic diamond, which has the same chemical structure as natural diamond, is resilient, low-cost and sustainable, and glass is versatile and electrically insulating; technologies that combine the two are promising.
The researchers made their foundation using glass etching, a process that relies on acid to reduce a glass slab to a thickness of 50 micrometers (about the length of a typical cell in the human body). Janssens and his collaborators, Professor Eliot Fried, David Vázquez-Cortés, Alessandro Giussani, and James Kwiecinski, used a laser to drill cavities, approximately 40 micrometers in diameter and depth, into one side of the glass slab.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday September 24 2019, @02:35AM
There's no such thing as a synthetic diamond. A rock is either a diamond or it's not. The only question is if it was made the quick way or the extremely tedious way.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.