Semiconductors are physical systems whose electrical conductivity lies between that of conductors and insulators and is strongly tunable by temperature, impurity concentration, and external fields. Their behavior is governed by band structure, featuring a finite band gap between valence and conduction bands that enables controlled carrier generation and recombination. Charge transport arises from electrons and holes, with densities modulated via doping, optical excitation, or electrostatic gating. Semiconductor systems support phenomena such as drift, diffusion, and quantum confinement, and they serve as the foundational medium for devices like diodes, transistors, and optoelectronic components through engineered heterostructures, junctions, and nanostructures.
Thin films might not come up in conversation every day, but they are all around us. Take the metallic plastic films of chip bags, for example, or the anti-reflective coatings on eyeglasses. Even the coatings on pills that ...
Superconductivity
Apr 16, 2026
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Researchers at The University of Osaka, in collaboration with ULVAC, Inc. and Ritsumeikan University, have developed a new LED structure that generates circularly polarized light from a single chip. By combining a semipolar ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 15, 2026
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Computer chips that cram billions of electronic devices into a few square inches have powered the digital economy and transformed the world. Scientists may be on the cusp of launching a similar technological revolution—this ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 15, 2026
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When we watch videos or ask AI questions, enormous amounts of data are constantly moving inside computers. In particular, data centers that support AI must process and transfer vast amounts of data at very high speeds. However, ...
Nanomaterials
Apr 10, 2026
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An international team of researchers, led by scientists from the University of California, Irvine, has demonstrated a fundamentally new way to make silicon emit light—overcoming one of the most persistent limitations in modern ...
Nanophysics
Apr 8, 2026
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While traditional printer pigments fade and most structural color can't be printed, Kobe University material engineer Sugimoto Hiroshi has been working on nothing short of a revolution in the way color is produced.
Nanomaterials
Apr 6, 2026
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Detecting a single particle of light is hard; detecting a single microwave photon is even harder. Microwave photons, the tiny packets of electromagnetic radiation used in current technologies like Wi-Fi and radar, carry far ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 3, 2026
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In a first for the field, materials scientists from The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have interfaced two materials to artificially generate a highly conductive ferroelectric ...
Nanophysics
Mar 31, 2026
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Silicon is ubiquitous in modern electronics, and now it is becoming increasingly useful in quantum computing. In particular, silicon's compatibility with existing chip technology and its long coherence times in silicon-based ...
Just as an antenna interacts with radio waves, light interacts with metallic nanostructures. Therefore, understanding how a structure influences field oscillations provides valuable insights into the structure's physical ...
Nanophysics
Mar 26, 2026
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