In the world of semiconductors, impurities and defects can be a good thing. They modify the properties of materials such as silicon, and scientists can exploit these properties to develop better transistors for laptops, smart phones, and solar cells.
Recently, a new class of semiconductor was discovered that is only three atoms thick and which extends in a two-dimensional plane, similar to graphene. These 2-D semiconductors, called Transition Metal Dichalcogenides (TMDs), have exceptional optical characteristics. They can be developed into ultra-sensitive photo detectors, and a...
Scientists have devised a way to build a “quantum metamaterial”—an engineered material with exotic properties not found in nature—using ultracold atoms trapped in an artificial crystal composed of light. The theoretical work represents a step toward manipulating atoms to transmit information, perform complex simulations or function as powerful sensors.
The research team, led by scientists at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley, proposes the use of an accordion-like atomic framework, or “lattice” structure, made with laser...
A sprawling business park, near a patchwork of former salt ponds on the Hayward shoreline, houses more than its share of biotech and energy startups bent on changing the world. Tucked inside these nondescript boxes are companies making innovative batteries to store power from solar and wind farms, ingestible sensors called smart pills to help patients monitor medication intake and, at the offices of Berkeley-born Alphabet Energy, devices to convert wasted exhaust heat into clean, renewable power.
As physicist Thomas Seebeck discovered in 1821, certain materials that efficiently...
Scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have taken a big step toward the practical application of “valleytronics,” which is a new type of electronics that could lead to faster and more efficient computer logic systems and data storage chips in next-generation devices.
As reported online April 4 in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, the scientists experimentally demonstrated, for the first time, the ability...
Under the leadership of Paul Alivisatos since 2009, Berkeley Lab has greatly advanced research at the intersection of biological, energy, and environmental sciences. At the onset of his directorship, there were no plans for an emerging biosciences campus at the heart of Berkeley Lab, no Wang Hall, or Chu Hall, no General Purpose Laboratory building or FLEXLAB, or centers such as JCAP and the Institute for Globally Transformative Technologies. Not only has Alivisatos overseen infrastructure and programmatic growth, he has championed restructured leadership, diversity and leadership...
Paul Alivisatos, UC Berkeley’s newly appointed vice chancellor for research and the outgoing director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, has been awarded the international Dan David Prize for his contributions in the field of nanoscience.
The Dan David Foundation, headquartered at Tel Aviv University, awards three prizes annually of $1 million each for outstanding achievements in three time dimensions: past, present and future.
Alivisatos shared the “future” prize with Chad Mirkin of Northwestern University and Sir John Pendry of Imperial College London, all pioneers...
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley have found a simple new way to produce nanoscale wires that can serve as tiny, tunable lasers.
The nanowires, with diameters as small as 200 nanometers (billionths of a meter) and a blend of materials that has also proven effective in next-generation solar cell designs, were shown to produce very bright, stable laser light. Researchers say the excellent performance of these tiny lasers is promising for the field of optoelectronics, which is focused on combining...
A potential avenue to quantum computing currently generating quite the buzz in the high-tech industry is “valleytronics,” in which information is coded based on the wavelike motion of electrons moving through certain two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors. Now, a promising new pathway to valleytronic technology has been uncovered by researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).
Feng Wang, a condensed matter physicist with Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division, led a study in which it was demonstrated that a well-established phenomenon known as the “...
There are many different ways to make nanomaterials but weaving, the oldest and most enduring method of making fabrics, has not been one of them – until now. An international collaboration led by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley, has woven the first three-dimensional covalent organic frameworks (COFs) from helical organic threads. The woven COFs display significant advantages in structural flexibility, resiliency and reversibility over previous COFs – materials that are...
Paul Alivisatos, an internationally renowned chemist who has run the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for the past seven years, has been tapped to lead the research enterprise at UC Berkeley.
Alivisatos, who has been a UC Berkeley professor of chemistry since 1988, will assume the position of vice chancellor for research on March 1. He will oversee campus research, which annually generates approximately $700 million in grants and contracts. Alivisatos announced his plans to step down as director of Berkeley Lab last year, and...
