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.
Rice University researchers studying a class of atom-thin semiconductors known as transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have discovered that light can trigger a physical shift in their atomic lattice, creating a tunable ...
Nanophysics
Nov 4, 2025
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Scientists have long sought to make semiconductors—vital components in computer chips and solar cells—that are also superconducting, thereby enhancing their speed and energy efficiency and enabling new quantum technologies. ...
Condensed Matter
Oct 30, 2025
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Two-dimensional (2D) materials, sparked by the isolation of Nobel-prize-winning graphene in 2004, has revolutionized modern materials science by showing that electrical, optical, and mechanical behaviors can be tuned simply ...
Nanophysics
Oct 24, 2025
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From computer chips to quantum dots—technological platforms were only made possible thanks to a detailed understanding of the used solid-state materials, such as silicon or more complex semiconductor materials. This understanding ...
Optics & Photonics
Oct 7, 2025
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An international team of researchers from Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany), Tohoku University (Japan), and École Polytechnique de Montréal (Canada) has made a significant discovery in semiconductor science by revealing ...
Condensed Matter
Oct 6, 2025
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Atoms in crystalline solids sometimes vibrate in unison, giving rise to emergent phenomena known as phonons. Because these collective vibrations set the pace for how heat and energy move through materials, they play a central ...
Condensed Matter
Sep 30, 2025
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Researchers at the National University of Singapore (NUS) have observed a doping-tunable charge density wave (CDW) in a single-layer semiconductor, Chromium(III) selenide (Cr2Se3), extending the CDW phenomenon from metals ...
Condensed Matter
Sep 24, 2025
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Transistors, the building blocks of modern electronics, are typically made of silicon. Because it's a semiconductor, this material can control the flow of electricity in a circuit. But silicon has fundamental physical limits ...
Condensed Matter
Sep 23, 2025
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199
Excitons, bound states between an electron (i.e., a negatively charged particle) and a hole (i.e., the absence of an electron) in materials, are a key focus of condensed matter physics studies. These bound states can give ...
Black phosphorus nanoribbons (BPNRs), thin and narrow ribbon-like strips of black phosphorus, are known to exhibit highly advantageous electronic properties, including a tunable bandgap. This essentially means that the energy ...
