Category Chemistry/Nanotechnology

(top) Devices with one-layer and seven-layer MoS2 were built on top of a silicon base and compared. Dielectric constants responsible for the difference in electrostatic potentials are shown in parenthesis. (bottom) The device with one-layer MoS2 (inside the violet box) showed better performance in converting light to electric current than the seven-layer device (inside the pink box).

The Center for Integrated Nanostructure Physics, within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) has developed the world’s thinnest photodetector, that is a device that converts light into an electric current. With a thickness of just 1.3nm – 10X smaller than the current standard silicon diodes – this device could be used in the Internet of Things IoT, smart devices, wearable electronics and photoelectronics.

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This first version of a new layered perovskite solar cell already achieves an efficiency of more than 20 percent, rivaling many commercial solar cells. Flexible and easy to make, it can produce more than half a volt of electricity. Credit: Onur Ergen, UC Berkeley

Solar cells made from an inexpensive and increasingly popular material called perovskite can more efficiently turn sunlight into electricity using a new technique to sandwich 2 types of perovskite into a single photovoltaic cell. Perovskite solar cells are made of a mix of organic molecules and inorganic elements that together capture light and convert it into electricity, just like today’s more common silicon-based solar cells...

This is an infrared image of metadevice composed of vanadium dioxide with gold patterned mesh. (Top) Device without any electric current showing the PSU cut from the pattern and reflective. (Middle) Device with 2.03 amps

An electric current will not only heat a hybrid metamaterial, but will also trigger it to change state and fade into the background like a chameleon in what may be the proof-of-concept of the first controllable metamaterial device, or metadevice. “Previous metamaterials work focused mainly on cloaking objects so they were invisible in the radio frequency or other specific frequencies,” said Douglas H. Werner, John L. and Genevieve H. McCain Chair Professor of electrical engineering, Penn State...