2014 | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)

Researchers Create and Control Spin Waves, Lifting Prospects for Enhanced Information Processing

A team of New York University and University of Barcelona physicists has developed a method to control the movements occurring within magnetic materials, which are used to store and carry information.

Heat-conducting Plastic Developed at U-Michigan

The spaghetti-like internal structure of most plastics makes it hard for them to cast away heat, but a University of Michigan research team has made a plastic blend that does so 10 times better than its conventional counterparts.

UT Advances Understanding of Atomically Thin Crystal Growth

Study looked at growing an atomically thin, or two-dimensional, crystal—the epilayer—on top of a substrate. The substrate can be a bulk, or three-dimensional, crystal or another two-dimensional crystal.

SDSC to Start Loading the Nodes for its New “Comet” Supercomputer

New petascale system slated for launch in early 2015 and will be connected to ESnet (Energy Sciences Network), allowing users to rapidly move data to SDSC for analysis and data sharing and return data to their institutions for local use.

New Materials Yield Record Efficiency Polymer Solar Cells

Researchers from North Carolina State University and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology have found that temperature-controlled aggregation in a family of new semi-conducting polymers is the key to creating highly efficient organic solar cells that can be mass produced more cheaply.

Scientists Get to the Heart of Fool's Gold as a Solar Material

A University of Wisconsin-Madison research team tries to find improvements in iron pyrite (fool's gold) that could lead to inexpensive yet efficient solar cells.

Revolutionary Solar-friendly Form of Silicon Shines

A team of Carnegie scientists led by Timothy Strobel has synthesized an entirely new form of silicon, one that promises even greater future applications.

"Mind the Gap" Between Atomically Thin Materials

For the first time, the Penn State researchers grew a single atomic layer of tungsten diselenide on a one- atom-thick substrate of graphene with pristine interfaces between the two layers.

Physicists Advance Understanding of Transition Metal Oxides Used in Electronics

An international team of scientists, led by physicists at the University of Arkansas, has characterized the electronic and magnetic structure in artificially synthesized materials called transition metal oxides.

Stanford Engineers Use Technique From Petrochemical Industry to Store Solar Energy

Chemical engineers at Stanford have designed a catalyst that could help produce vast quantities of pure hydrogen through electrolysis.

Rice Study Fuels Hope for Natural Gas Cars

Rice University scientists identify metal organic framework candidates for methane storage.

New Form of Crystalline Order

A team of researchers from Vanderbilt University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) reports that it has discovered an entirely new form of crystalline order that simultaneously exhibits both crystal and polycrystalline properties, which they describe as “interlaced crystals.”