Category Technology/Electronics

(Clockwise from left) Brookhaven Lab physicists Ivan Bozovic, Anthony Bollinger, and Jie Wu, and postdoctoral researcher Xi He are with the atomic layer-by-layer molecular beam epitaxy system used to synthesize more than 2,500 thin films of a copper-oxide compound called LSCO. The team studied LSCO to understand why it can become superconducting at a much higher temperature than the ultra-chilled temperatures required by conventional superconductors. Credit: Brookhaven National Laboratory

Understanding this exotic behavior may pave the way for engineering materials that become superconducting at room temperature...

This is a wood composite as an energy efficient building material: Guided sunlight transmission and effective thermal insulation. Credit: University of Maryland and Advanced Energy Materials

Natural microstructures in transparent wood are key to lighting & insulation advantages. Engineers at A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland (UMD) demonstrate in a new study that windows made of transparent wood could provide more even and consistent natural lighting and better energy efficiency than glass, while eliminating glare. The findings advance earlier published work on their development of transparent wood.

The transparent wood lets through just a little bit less light than glass, but a lot less heat, said Tian Li...

A slice of (white) lithium garnet electrolyte coated with a (black) lithium compound acting as the battery’s minus pole in the laboratory of the ETH researchers. Credit: ETH Zurich / Fabio Bergamin

A new lithium-ion battery made entirely of solid material has been developed by scientists. It has neither liquids nor gels. The battery is non-flammable, even at very high temperatures, giving it a safety advantage over conventional batteries. Mobile phones, laptops, e-bikes and electric cars are all powered by such batteries.

Conventional lithium-ion batteries are not without their dangers: mobile phone batteries have exploded several times in the past, resulting in injuries, and only 6 months ago an entire row of houses burned down in the old town of Steckborn on Lake Constance...

Scientists have proposed a graphene-based sensor that can ‘sniff out’ a single molecule of explosives. Credit: Graphene-based sensor

A graphene-based spaser can detect even small amounts of various substances, including explosives, toxic chemicals, and other organic compounds based on a single molecule. Scientists have long been fascinated by the potential applications of a quasiparticle called the plasmon, a quantum of plasma oscillations. In the case of a solid body, plasmons are the oscillations of free electrons.

Of special interest are the effects from the surface interactions of electromagnetic waves with plasmons – usually in the context of metals or semimetals, as they have a higher free electron density...