Light in concert with force reveals how materials become harder when illuminated
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A team of researchers from Nagoya University, Japan, and Technical University of Darmstadt have developed a technique for quantitatively studying the effect of light on nanoscale mechanical properties of thin wafers of semiconductors or any other crystalline material. The group has found clear evidence that propagation of dislocations - slippages of crystal planes - in semiconductors is suppressed by light. The likely cause is interaction between dislocations and electrons and holes excited by the light.
In a potential boost for quantum computing and communication, a European research collaboration reported a new method of controlling and manipulating single photons without generating heat. The solution makes it possible to integrate optical switches and single-photon detectors in a single chip.
Just as James Cameron's Terminator-800 was able to discriminate between "clothes, boots, and a motorcycle", machine-learning could identify different areas of interest on 2D materials. The simple, automated optical identification of fundamentally-different physical areas on these materials could significantly accelerate their application in next-generation, energy-efficient computing, optoelectronics and future smart-phones.
Fluid injection of perovskite semiconductors creates microwires to build different optoelectronic devices on a single silicon chip.
In a twist befitting the strange nature of quantum mechanics, physicists have discovered the Hall effect -- a characteristic change in the way electricity is conducted in the presence of a magnetic field -- in a nonmagnetic quantum material to which no magnetic field was applied.
For practical applications, two-dimensional materials such as graphene must at some point connect with the ordinary world of 3D materials. MIT researchers have come up with a way of imaging what goes on at these interfaces, down to the level of individual atoms, with the goal of better controlling these materials' electronic properties.
Graphene is not magnetic -- a shortcoming that has stunted its usefulness in spintronics, an emerging field that could rewrite the rules of electronics, leading to more powerful semiconductors and computers. University at Buffalo researchers report an advancement to overcome this obstacle. In a study published today in Physical Review Letters, researchers describe pairing a magnet with graphene, and inducing what they call "artificial magnetic texture" in the nonmagnetic wonder material.
Graphene Flagship researchers boost the efficiency of conductive inks and devices connecting layered materials flakes with small molecules
Researchers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology show that DNA can serve as a scaffold for light-harvesting supramolecules, where fluorescent dyes work as electron donors and buckyballs as electron acceptors. The DNA's regular 3D structure increases the light-to-electrons conversion efficiency by reducing so-called self-quenching. Such DNA-based supramolecules could be used in future organic solar cells.
Photochromic materials can reversibly change their color and optical properties when irradiated with ultraviolet or visible light. However, they are made from organic compounds that are expensive to synthesize. Fortunately, for the first time, scientists from Ritsumeikan University, Japan, have discovered fast-switching photochromism in an inexpensive inorganic material: copper-doped zinc sulfide nanocrystals. Their results pave the way for a plethora of potential applications ranging from smart adaptive windows and sunglasses to anti-counterfeiting agents.