Condensed-Matter Physics

Weird Superconductor Leads Double Life

Understanding strontium titanate’s odd behavior will aid efforts to develop materials that conduct electricity with 100 percent efficiency at higher temperatures.

Study Reveals New Insights into How Hybrid Perovskite Solar Cells Work

Research conducted at the atomic scale could help explain how electric currents move efficiently through hybrid perovskites, promising materials for solar cells.

Study Confirms that Cuprate Materials Have Fluctuating Stripes that May Be Linked to High-temperature Superconductivity

These stripes of electron spin and charge are exciting because of their possible link to a phenomenon that could transform society by making electrical transmission nearly 100 percent efficient.

Hewlett Packard’s Suhas Kumar Wins 2017 Klein Award

Kumar’s work, carried out in part at SSRL, explains how memristors work – a new class of electronic devices with applications in next-generation information storage and computing.

Newly Upgraded Laser Allows Scientists to Peer Further Into the Extreme Universe at SLAC’s LCLS

Tripling the energy and refining the shape of optical laser pulses at LCLS’s Matter in Extreme Conditions instrument allows researchers to recreate higher-pressure conditions and explore unsolved questions relevant to fusion energy, plasma physics and materials science.

Atomic Movies May Help Explain Why Perovskite Solar Cells Are More Efficient

SLAC’s ultrafast “electron camera” reveals unusual atomic motions that could be crucial for the efficiency of next-generation perovskite solar cells.

Scientists Get First Direct Look at How Electrons ‘Dance’ with Vibrating Atoms

Extraordinarily precise measurements -- within millionths of a billionth of a second and a billionth of a hair's breadth -- show this ‘electron-phonon coupling’ can be far stronger than predicted, and could potentially play a role in unconventional superconductivity.