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Energy sciences RSS feed

One of the most urgent challenges of our time is discovering how to generate the energy and products we need sustainably, without compromising the well-being of future generations by depleting limited resources or accelerating climate change. SLAC pursues this goal on many levels.

Studies of atomic-level processes

News Feature

It’s an example of how surprising properties can spontaneously emerge in complex materials – a phenomenon scientists hope to harness for novel technologies.

Illustration of a 2D superconducting state emerging in a 3D superconductor
News Feature

The results have important implications for today’s TV and display screens and for future technologies where light takes the place of electrons and fluids.

Illustration of three quantum dot nanocrystals showing atomic-level changes when they are hit with laser light
News Feature

Scientists have documented a process that makes these next-gen batteries lose charge – and eventually some of their capacity for storing energy – even...

News Feature

Just as pressing a guitar string produces a higher pitch, sending laser light through a material can shift it to higher energies and higher...

High harmonic generation in a topological insulator.
News Feature

A promising lead halide perovskite is great at converting sunlight to electricity, but it breaks down at room temperature. Now scientists have discovered how...

Lead halide material being squeezed in a diamond anvil cell.
News Feature

A pioneer in clean energy technology at Stanford and SLAC, he is one of eight scientists and engineers honored by the U.S. Department of...

Photo of Stanford and SLAC Professor Yi Cui
News Feature

The surprising results offer a way to boost the activity and stability of catalysts for making hydrogen fuel from water.

Illustration showing a book with layers of atoms on its pages
News Feature

These fleeting disruptions, seen for the first time in lead hybrid perovskites, may help explain why these materials are exceptionally good at turning sunlight...

An illustration shows polarons as bubbles of distortion in a perovskite lattice
News Feature

SLAC and Stanford partner with two Illinois universities to create the Center for Quantum Sensing and Quantum Materials, which aims to unravel mysteries associated...

Illustration of quantum processes
Press Release

Adding polymers and fireproofing to a battery’s current collectors makes it lighter, safer and about 20% more efficient.

Conceptual illustration of advantages of redesigned current collector.
News Feature

Daniel Ratner, head of SLAC’s machine learning initiative, explains the lab’s unique opportunities to advance scientific discovery through machine learning.

Physicist Daniel Ratner.
News Feature

For decades Z-X Shen has ridden a wave of curiosity about the strange behavior of electrons that can levitate magnets.

Portrait of Stanford and SLAC Professor Z-X Shen