Browse Physics

Materials in which heat flows perpendicular to an electric current could lead to better devices for cooling electronics.

Bundles of nearly identical carbon nanotubes have properties that are well-suited for making electricity from light.

Theorists propose an experiment to observe a “phoniton,” a novel hybrid of an electron and a quantum of vibration in a crystal lattice.

Creating a temperature difference in an arrangement of semiconductors generates a circulating current and a magnetic field, according to simulations. The effect may account for some inefficiency in electronic devices.

Two objects made of the exotic materials known as topological insulators could repel one another through the quantum-mechanical forces that cause most other solids to attract, theorists predict.

The combination of stress and corrosion that can prove deadly in bridges and other structures also allows silicon to be sliced with the nanometer-scale precision required for the latest computer chips, according to simulations.

The 1947 invention of the transistor, which made the microchip revolution possible, occurred in spite of a fierce rivalry between the inventors and their boss.

Researchers measured the interaction between surface plasmons–electron waves on metal surfaces–with excitons, excited states of electrons in semiconductors. Understanding the communication between the two could improve solar cells and speed up electronic and optical devices.

Researchers directly imaged the motion of charge carriers in a semiconductor junction, the basic element of a transistor.

Holes–the spaces left behind by electrons in semiconductors–can crystallize under the right conditions, according to computer simulations.

A fluid-based transistor conducts either positive or negative ion currents in water and might be part of future integrated circuits in miniature medical diagnosis devices.

The wave nature of electrons could be used to detect tiny motions.

A few hundred atoms of silicon can form a novel not-quite-crystalline solid, theorists predict.

Researchers have generated the first direct images of the motion of a single exciton, a particle that is essential to modern electronics.

Using ultrafast laser pulses, researchers have recorded a structural change in a crystal that takes only a few hundred femtoseconds.

Physicists have made the first direct measurements of the force exerted by a single atom in a solid.

Physicists have demonstrated amplification with electron-photon half-breeds called polaritons, suggesting the possibility of a new type of laser.