 how quantum dots can be tuned and incorporated into the right materials to address the whole set of communication wavelengths," says Winslow Sargeant, THE FUTURE IS FIBER-OPTICAL TECHNOLOGIES NSF Program officer for small business. "Our study is the first to demonstrate experimentally that we can convert electrical current into light using a partic- ularly promising class of nanocrystals." The research is based on nanotech- nology: engineering based on the length of a nanometer-one billionth of a meter. "We are building custom materials from the ground up," says Winslow Sargeant, NSF Program officer for small business. Working with colleagues in the university's chemistry department, the team created lead sulfide nanocrystals, using a cost-effective technique that allowed them to work at room pressure and at the relatively cool temperatures of less than 150 degrees Celsius. Traditionally, creating the crystals used in generat- ing light for fiber-optic communications means working in a vacuum at tem- peratures approaching 600 to 800 degrees Celsius. "Despite the precise way in which quantum dot nanocrystals are created, the surfaces of the crystals are unstable," says Gregory Scholes, a chemistry department professor. To stabilize the nanocrystals, the team encircled them with a special layer of molecules. The crystals were then combined with a semi- conducting polymer material to create a thin, smooth film of the hybrid polymer. Sargent explains that, when electrons cross the conductive polymer, they encounter what are essentially "canyons," with a quantum dot located at the bottom. Electrons must fall over the edge of the "canyon" and reach the bottom before producing light. The team tailored the stabilizing molecules SO that they would hold special electrical properties, ensuring a flow of electrons into the light-producing "canyons." The colors of light the researchers generated, ranging from 1.3 to 1.6um in wavelength, spanned the full range of colors for communicating information with the use of light. "Ou