Blend two or three metals together and you get an alloy that usually looks and acts like a metal, with its atoms arranged in rigid geometric patterns. But once in a while, under just the right conditions, you get something entirely new: a futuristic alloy called metallic glass that’s amorphous, with its atoms arranged every…
Topological Materials Have a Light Switch
Theoretical physicists at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory used computer simulations to show how special light pulses could create robust channels where electricity flows without resistance in an atomically thin semiconductor. If this approach is confirmed by experiments, it could open the door to a new way of creating and controlling this…
Researchers Use World’s Smallest Diamonds to Make Wires Three Atoms Wide
Scientists at Stanford University and the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have discovered a way to use diamondoids – the smallest possible bits of diamond – to assemble atoms into the thinnest possible electrical wires, just three atoms wide. By grabbing various types of atoms and putting them together LEGO-style, the new technique…
SLAC Partners with Berkeley Lab on Research for Exascale Initiatives
Researchers at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory are playing key roles in two recently funded computing projects with the goal of developing cutting-edge scientific applications for future exascale supercomputers that can perform at least a billion billion computing operations per second – 50 to 100 times more than the most powerful supercomputers…
Cleanroom Snapshot: SLAC Receives New Mirrors
Scientists are installing new mirrors to improve the quality of the X-ray laser beam at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The meter-long mirrors are the ultimate in flatness, smooth to within the height of one atom or one-fifth of a nanometer. Right now, the mirrors are stored in a cleanroom to avoid…