Perovskites, a ‘dirt cheap’ alternative to silicon, just got a lot more efficient

Researchers use substrates of metal and dielectrics to boost the light conversion efficiency of perovskites by 250 percent

22-Feb-2023 - Silicon, the standard semiconducting material used in a host of applications—computer central processing units (CPUs), semiconductor chips, detectors, and solar cells—is an abundant, naturally occurring material. However, it is expensive to mine and to purify. Perovskites—a family of materials ...

Cellphone converts into powerful chemical detector

With only $50 worth of components, an ordinary cellphone transforms into a sophisticated scientific instrument, capable of identifying chemicals, drugs, and pathogens

07-May-2021 - Scientists from Texas A&M have developed an extension to an ordinary cellphone that turns it into an instrument capable of detecting chemicals, drugs, biological molecules, and pathogens. The advance is reported in Reviews of Scientific Instruments, by AIP Publishing. Modern cellphones include ...

'Stealth' material hides hot objects from infrared eyes

27-Jun-2018 - Infrared cameras are the heat-sensing eyes that help drones find their targets even in the dead of night or through heavy fog. Hiding from such detectors could become much easier, thanks to a new cloaking material that renders objects -- and people -- practically invisible. "What we have shown is ...

Long-Sought Workaround to Helium Shortage?

Neutron Detection Method

12-Jun-2018 - Doctors use X-rays to see inside people, and scientists use neutrons to peer inside advanced materials and devices such as fuel cells to better understand and improve them. But a critical shortage of a rare form of helium used for detecting neutrons—which are difficult to spot directly—threatens ...

Engineers give optical switches the 'contrast' of electronic transistors

02-Feb-2018 - Current computer systems represent bits of information, the 1's and 0's of binary code, with electricity. Circuit elements, such as transistors, operate on these electric signals, producing outputs that are dependent on their inputs. As fast and powerful as computers have become, Ritesh Agarwal, ...

Thin-film ferroelectrics go extreme

12-May-2017 - Scientists have greatly expanded the range of functional temperatures for ferroelectrics, a key material used in a variety of everyday applications, by creating the first-ever polarization gradient in a thin film. The achievement by researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley ...

Method improves accuracy of imaging systems

09-Feb-2017 - New research provides scientists looking at single molecules or into deep space a more accurate way to analyze imaging data captured by microscopes, telescopes and other devices. The improved method for determining the position of objects captured by imaging systems is the result of new research ...

Nanocubes simplify printing and imaging in color and infrared

16-Dec-2016 - Duke University researchers believe they have overcome a longstanding hurdle to producing cheaper, more robust ways to print and image across a range of colors extending into the infrared. As any mantis shrimp will tell you, there are a wide range of "colors" along the electromagnetic spectrum ...

Sniffing like a dog can improve trace detection of explosives

05-Dec-2016 - By mimicking how dogs get their whiffs, a team of government and university researchers have demonstrated that "active sniffing" can improve by more than 10 times the performance of current technologies that rely on continuous suction to detect trace amounts of explosives and other ...

Tiny graphene radios may lead to Internet of Nano-Things

03-Nov-2016 - For wireless communication, we're all stuck on the same traffic-clogged highway - it's a section of the electromagnetic spectrum known as radio waves. Advancements have made the highway more efficient, but bandwidth issues persist as wireless devices proliferate and the demand for data grows. The ...