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 SLAC develops materials to improve the performance of batteries, fuel cells and other energy technologies and set the stage for technologies of the future.

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Energy sciences

In materials hit with light, individual atoms and vibrations take disorderly paths.

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A SLAC/Stanford manufacturing technique could help make inexpensive polymer-based solar cells an attractive alternative to silicon-crystal wafers.

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Ultrafast Electron Diffraction Reveals Rapid Motions of Atoms and Molecules

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Researchers discovered that adding two chemicals to the electrolyte of a lithium metal battery prevents the formation of dendrites – “fingers” of lithium that...

Image - concept of dendrites v pancakes
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X-ray studies at SLAC have observed an exotic property that could improve performance in ever-smaller computer components.

3-D negative electronic compressibility, observed for the first time in research conducted, in part,
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SLAC and the SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis supported creation of a new carbon material that significantly improves the performance of batteries...

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Results from SIMES theorists pave the way for experiments that create and control new forms of matter with light.

Depiction of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb pattern to form graphene
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A commercial X-ray source with roots in SLAC research enables multi-mode computer tomography scans that outperform routine scans in hospitals. The technique could potentially...

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SIMES principal investigators Zhi-Xun Shen, Shoucheng Zhang and Aharon Kapitulnik were elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

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SLAC study of tiny nanocrystals provides new insight on the design and function of nanomaterials

Image - In this illustration, intense X-rays produced at SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source strike nanowires to study an ultrafast "breathing" response in the crystals induced quadrillionths of a second earlier by pulses of optical laser light.
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Two new research projects support the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences in the study of exotic new materials that could enable future...

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Recent experiments at SLAC's SSRL reveal that an organic semiconductor transports electrical charge more efficiently when combined with the wonder material graphene.

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Scientists have assembled an exotic toolbox for experiments that tap into the brightest X-rays on the planet.

Image - This illustration shows a cutaway view of a type of sample system used at the Linac Coherent Light Source X-ray laser that jets samples in a superthin liquid or gel stream into its X-ray pulses. This system is known as a gas dynamic virtual nozzle