New discoveries made about a promising solar cell material, thanks to new microscope

23-Nov-2022 - A team of scientists from the Department of Energy’s Ames National Laboratory developed a new characterization tool that allowed them to gain unique insight into a possible alternative material for solar cells. Under the leadership of Jigang Wang, senior scientist from Ames Lab, the team ...

Surprising semiconductor properties revealed with innovative new method

Discovery reveals role of oxygen impurities in semiconductor properties

11-Mar-2022 - A research team probing the properties of a semiconductor combined with a novel thin oxide film have observed a surprising new source of conductivity from oxygen atoms trapped inside. Scott Chambers, a materials scientist at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, ...

MRI zooms in on microscopic flow

12-Oct-2010 - "Better and faster results!" is the clarion call for scientists and engineers to continually strive to improve their research tools. Of the tools used to study material structures at the atomic and molecular scales, there is none finer than Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and its ...

Fuel cells in operation: A closer look

11-Oct-2010 - Measuring a fuel cell's overall performance is relatively easy, but measuring its components individually as they work together is a challenge. That's because one of the best experimental techniques for investigating the details of an electrochemical device while it's operating is x-ray ...

Unprecedented look at oxide interfaces reveals unexpected structures on atomic scale

10-Aug-2010 - Thin layers of oxide materials and their interfaces have been observed in atomic resolution during growth for the first time by researchers at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, providing new insight into the complicated link ...

Highest X-ray energy used to probe materials

27-Jul-2010 - Scientists for the first time have dived into the effect that an intense X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) has on materials. Using the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) facility at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore scientists probed nitrogen gas at X-ray energies of up ...

X-rays reveal chemical link between birds and dinosaurs

14-May-2010 - Researchers have found that a 150 million year old "dinobird" fossil, long thought to contain nothing but fossilized bone and rock, has been hiding remnants of the animal's original chemistry. Using the bright X-ray beam of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, located at the Department ...

ORNL Z-contrast microscope first to resolve, identify individual light atoms

ORNL Z-contrast microscope first to resolve, identify individual light atoms

29-Mar-2010 - Using the latest in aberration-corrected electron microscopy, researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and their colleagues have obtained the first images that distinguish individual light atoms such as boron, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. The ORNL images were ...

New ORNL sensor exploits traditional weakness of nano devices

17-Feb-2010 - By taking advantage of a phenomenon that until now has been a virtual showstopper for electronics designers, a team led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Panos Datskos is developing a chemical and biological sensor with unprecedented sensitivity. Ultimately, researchers believe this new ...

A billion-year ultra-dense memory chip

11-Jun-2009 - When it comes to data storage, density and durability have always moved in opposite directions – the greater the density the shorter the durability. For example, information carved in stone is not dense but can last thousands of years, whereas today's silicon memory chips can hold their ...