A Tight Squeeze

An inside look at a silicon nanoparticle under pressure.
An inside look at a silicon nanoparticle under pressure.
Image credit: Rees Rankin (Argonne National Laboratory), Daniel Hannah (Northwestern University), Maria Chan (ANL), George Schatz (NU) and Rich Schaller (ANL)

Scientists at Argonne National Laboratory and Northwestern University are interested in what happens when they squeeze particles that are very, very small – on the scale of a thousand times smaller than a red blood cell. In a computer simulation, a silicon nanoparticle (blue atoms) is being compressed by a sea of argon (green) atoms. This image shows the view from inside a Si nanoparticle. These calculations, along with experiments, both show changes in the way light is emitted when a silicon nanoparticle is under high pressure.

Related Abstract

Gray arrow  Atomistic and first principles studies of Si nanoparticles under pressure