Electrons slowing down at critical moments

In a new study, researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have determined that electrons in some oxides can experience an "unconventional slowing down" of their response to a light ...

Why perovskite solar cells are so efficient

Solar cells with efficiencies above 20% and produced at low costs – perovskites make this possible. Now, researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have gained fundamental insight into the function of perovskite ...

En route to the optical nuclear clock

The nucleus of thorium-229 possesses a property that is unique among all known nuclides: It should be possible to excite it with ultraviolet light. To date, little has been known about the low-energy state of the Th-229 nucleus ...

From insulator to conductor in a flash

In recent decades, computers have become faster and hard disks and storage chips have reached enormous capacities. But this trend cannot continue forever. Physical limits are preventing silicon-based computer technology from ...

Researchers observe electrons zipping around in crystals

The end of the silicon age has begun. As computer chips approach the physical limits of miniaturization and power-hungry processors drive up energy costs, scientists are looking to a new crop of exotic materials that could ...

Strongly anisotropic spin relaxation observed in graphene

Researchers of the ICN2 Physics and Engineering of Nanodevices Group, led by ICREA Prof. Sergio O. Valenzuela, have unambiguously demonstrated the anisotropic nature of spin relaxation in graphene when interfaced with transition ...

Freezing electrons makes them get in line

New research published in Nature Communications suggests that electrons in a two-dimensional gas can undergo a semi-ordered (nematic) to mostly-ordered (smectic) phase transition, which has been discussed in physics theory ...

page 7 from 15