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A Trick of Light: UC Irvine researchers turn Silicon into Direct Bandgap Semiconductor

composite photograph of three male scientists.
UC Irvine’s Ara Apkarian, Distinguished Professor emeritus of chemistry; Dmitry Fishman, adjunct professor of chemistry; and Eric Potma, professor of chemistry, (from left) brought together decades of knowledge and experience on a project that resulted in the discovery of a new way light can interact with matter, specifically indirect semiconductors, like silicon, an important building block in computers, electronics and solar power systems. Their work will help to greatly improve the power, efficiency and usability of the second-most abundant element in Earth’s crust. UC Irvine

Discovery enables manufacturing of ultrathin solar panels, advanced optoelectronics

By creating a new way for light and matter to interact, researchers at the University of California, Irvine have enable...

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Learning more about Supernovae through Stardust

Pair of presolar grains from the Murchison meteorite. Credit: Argonne National Laboratory, Department of Energy

Most of the diverse elements in the universe come from supernovae. We are, quite literally, made of the dust of those long-dead stars and other astrophysical processes. But the details of how it all comes about are something astronomers strive to understand.

How do the various isotopes produced by supernovae drive the evolution of planetary systems? Of the various types of supernovae, which play the largest role in creating the elemental abundances we see today? One way astronomers can study these questions is to look at presolar grains.

These are dust grains formed long before the formation of the sun...

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Off the clothesline, On the Grid: MXene Nanomaterials enable Wireless Charging in Textiles

MXene ink energy grid
Researchers from Drexel University, the University of Pennsylvania and Accenture Labs have developed a process for using MXene ink to print a textile energy grid that can be charged wirelessly.

Researchers demonstrate printed textile-based energy grid using MXene ink. The next step for fully integrated textile-based electronics to make their way from the lab to the wardrobe is figuring out how to power the garment gizmos without unfashionably toting around a solid battery. Researchers from Drexel University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Accenture Labs in California have taken a new approach to the challenge by building a full textile energy grid that can be wirelessly charged...

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NASA’s Hubble, Webb probe surprisingly Smooth Disk around Vega

Teams of astronomers used the combined power of NASA’s Hubble and James Webb space telescopes to revisit the legendary Vega disk.

In the 1997 movie “Contact,” adapted from Carl Sagan’s 1985 novel, the lead character scientist Ellie Arroway (played by actor Jodi Foster) takes a space-alien-built wormhole ride to the star Vega. She emerges inside a snowstorm of debris encircling the star — but no obvious planets are visible.

It looks like the filmmakers got it right.

A team of astronomers at the University of Arizona, Tucson used NASA’s Hubble and James Webb space telescopes for an unprecedented in-depth look at the nearly 100-billion-mile-diameter debris disk encircling Vega. “Between the Hubble and Webb telescopes, you get this very clear view of Vega...

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