Most materials, especially metals and ceramics, are crystals. Their atoms are arranged in three-dimensional lattices that repeat the same exact pattern, over and over again. But there's a well-known ...

Point defects (e.g. missing, extra or swapped atoms) in crystalline materials often determine the actual electronic and optical response of a given material. For example, controlled substitutions in ...

Researchers developed a method that gradually adds and removes atoms in simulations, enabling realistic modeling of crystal defects that affect material strength.

Research offers insights into how crystal dislocations -- a common type of defect in materials -- can affect electrical and heat transport through crystals, at a microscopic, quantum mechanical level.

IN the ideal crystal, graphite consists of infinite sheets of fused aromatic rings, packed in parallel and with hexagonal symmetry of the atoms. Actual crystals of graphite show various types of ...

Quantum engineers have spent years trying to tame the fragility of qubits, only to be thwarted by the tiniest imperfections in the materials they use. Now a new line of research flips that problem on ...

If we are to prevent the impending environmental crisis, it is imperative that we find efficient and sustainable ways to avoid being wasteful. One area with much room for improvement is the recycling ...

Using hard X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, researchers revealed how oxygen vacancies and structural disorder influence subgap state formation. The figure shows the InGaZnO 4 crystal structure, the ...

Researchers have explored a 'quantum-inspired' technique to make the 'ones' and 'zeroes' for classical computer memory applications out of crystal defects, each the size of an individual atom. This ...

(Nanowerk News) Two-dimensional materials are essential for developing new ultra-compact electronic devices, but producing defect-free 2D materials is a challenge. However, discovery of new types of ...