Science

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A different type of 2-D semiconductor: Berkeley Lab researchers produce first ultrathin sheets of perovskite hybrids

To the growing list of two-dimensional semiconductors, such as graphene, boron nitride, and molybdenum disulfide, whose unique electronic properties make them potential successors to silicon in future devices, you can now add hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites. However, unlike the other contenders, which are covalent semiconductors, these 2D hybrid perovskites are ionic materials, which gives them special properties of their own.

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have successfully grown atomically thin 2D sheets of organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites from solution. The ultrathin sheets are of high quality, large in area, and square-shaped. They also exhibited efficient photoluminescence, color-tunability, and a unique structural relaxation not found in covalent semiconductor sheets.

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Celebrating Hubble and the Spirit of Exploration

Before April 24, 1990, seeing photos of space from space was not an option. Since then however, as spectators we’ve seen some photos that are nearly unimaginable. Why is that date so special? It was the date the Hubble Space Telescope was launched into space, making it a bit more than 25 years old.

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Mars Panorama from Curiosity Shows Petrified Sand Dunes

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Large-scale crossbedding in the sandstone of this ridge on a lower slope of Mars' Mount Sharp is typical of windblown sand dunes that have petrified.

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Funky Light Signal From Colliding Black Holes Explained

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This simulation helps explain an odd light signal thought to be coming from a close-knit pair of merging black holes, PG 1302-102, located 3.5 billion light-years away.

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Cellulose Nanopaper Produced by Optical Nanosensors

A group of researchers from Iran and Spain produced laboratorial sample of sensors made of nanopaper to introduce bacterial cellulose nanopaper as a biological substrate for the production of optical transparent nanosensors.

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Inexpensive Method Reduces Costs to Produce Light Sorbent Nanostructured Layers

The need for green and sustainable energies has resulted in many researches on light absorbing layers in solar cells in recent decades.

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Inexpensive Method Reduces Costs to Produce Light Sorbent Nanostructured Layers

The need for green and sustainable energies has resulted in many researches on light absorbing layers in solar cells in recent decades.

Researchers have tried to synthesize and study new nanostructured absorbing layers made of cheap and available elements with desirable physical properties because indium and gallium are very rare and expensive.

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Making 3-D objects disappear: Berkeley Lab researchers create ultrathin invisibility cloak

Invisibility cloaks are a staple of science fiction and fantasy, from Star Trek to Harry Potter, but don't exist in real life, or do they? Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley have devised an ultra-thin invisibility "skin" cloak that can conform to the shape of an object and conceal it from detection with visible light. Although this cloak is only microscopic in size, the principles behind the technology should enable it to be scaled-up to conceal macroscopic items as well.

Working with brick-like blocks of gold nanoantennas, the Berkeley researchers fashioned a "skin cloak" barely 80 nanometers in thickness, that was wrapped around a three-dimensional object about the size of a few biological cells and arbitrarily shaped with multiple bumps and dents. The surface of the skin cloak was meta-engineered to reroute reflected light waves so that the object was rendered invisible to optical detection when the cloak is activated.

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Removal of Heavy Metals from Wastewater by Electromagnetic Superabsorbent Nanocomposites

Pollution caused by heavy metals is one of the serious concerns in the field of environmental protection and; therefore, researchers from University of Mazandaran, Iran, produced magnetic nanosorbent at laboratorial scale to purify the contaminated waters.

This research deals with the production of biocompatible electromagnetic superabsorbent nanocomposites, and their application in the removal of pollutants, including lead, cadmium and cobalt, from drinking water. The nanosorbent has been produced through a simple and cost effective method, and it has good performance. After the removal of heavy metals, the produced nanosorbent can be separated from the cycle by using a magnetic field and it can be reused.

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NASA Completes Key Milestone for Orion Spacecraft in Support of Journey to Mars

NASA’s mission to send astronauts to deep space destinations where no other human has traveled has taken another important step forward with the completion of a critical milestone for the Orion spacecraft currently in production.

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