It may not seem like a material as thin as an atom could hide any surprises, but a research team led by scientists at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) discovered an unexpected magnetic property in a two-dimensional material. The scientists found that a 2D van der Waals crystal, part of…
Solar Cells Incorporate Water-Splitting Catalyst onto Semiconductor
Scientists have found a way to engineer the atomic-scale chemical properties of a water-splitting catalyst for integration with a solar cell, and the result is a big boost to the stability and efficiency of artificial photosynthesis. Led by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), the project is described in…
Lasers and Anti-Lasers Joined in Marriage
Bringing opposing forces together in one place is as challenging as you would imagine it to be, but researchers in the field of optical science have done just that. Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have for the first time created a single device that acts as both a…
World’s Smallest Transistor Changes the Rules
For more than a decade, engineers have been eyeing the finish line in the race to shrink the size of components in integrated circuits. They knew that the laws of physics had set a 5-nanometer threshold on the size of transistor gates among conventional semiconductors, about one-quarter the size of high-end 20-nanometer-gate transistors now on…
Semiconductor Research Could Lead to Artificial Photosynthesis System
Mimicking nature is not easy, but new insights by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) could help create a viable artificial system of photosynthesis. One of the major challenges for scientists working to create systems that efficiently convert sunlight, water and carbon dioxide into fuel is finding materials that…
Electron Bottleneck Spotted in Simulated Battery
An international team of scientists that includes researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has revealed how interactions between electrons and ions can slow down the performance of a material considered key to the next generation of batteries. As the appetite grows for more efficient vehicles and mobile devices based…