Skip to main content Skip to secondary navigation
Main content start

What will the batteries and electronics of the future look like?

A team of researchers peer deep into materials with ultrafast science.


	
		
			
				Visualizing the properties of nanoscale materials at ultrafast time scales | Photo courtesy of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
			
		
	

 





Visualizing the properties of nanoscale materials at ultrafast time scales | Photo courtesy of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory




 

What will the batteries and electronics of the future look like? Creating them will require understanding materials that are just a few atoms thick and that change their fundamental physical properties in fractions of a second. Cutting-edge facilities at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have allowed researchers like Aaron Lindenberg to visualize properties of these nanoscale materials at ultrafast time scales.

In one experiment, a team led by Lindenberg showed atoms shifting in trillionths of a second to produce a wrinkle in a 3-atom-thick sample of a material that might someday be used in flexible electronics. Another study observed semiconductor crystals — called “quantum dots” because they defy classical physics at the nanoscale — expand and shrink in response to ultrafast pulses of laser light.

Researchers have used SLAC’s experiment for ultrafast electron diffraction (UED), one of the world’s fastest “electron cameras,” to take snapshots of a three-atom-thick layer of a promising material as it wrinkles in response to a laser pulse. Understanding these dynamic ripples could provide crucial clues for the development of next-generation solar cells, electronics and catalysts.

Revealing such intriguing properties at the nanoscale gives clues about the fundamental nature of materials and how they perform in applications we rely on for energy or information.

“Even though some of these materials are completely embedded in everyday technologies, not a lot is understood about how they work,” says Lindenberg, who is an associate professor of materials science and engineering and of photon science.

Working at the intersection of materials science and engineering, Lindenberg and his team have a particular focus on finding promising materials for next-generation electronics, light-based data storage technologies and energy applications.

“There are a broad range of new properties that emerge at the nanoscale,” Lindenberg says. “The tiniest samples, with just tens or hundreds of atoms, can have nearly flawless structures that make them ideal test tubes for very fundamental questions about what happens when a material transforms.”

The team uses different types of laser light at SLAC and Stanford labs to learn how simple tweaks in the size, shape and design of materials can change their basic properties in unexpected ways, which could lead to new applications. Taking advantage of the powerful X-rays at SLAC facilities, including the Linac Coherent Light Source and the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, they explore ultrafast changes in nanoscale samples.

“We are trying to understand how electrons or atoms move in materials, which in turn determines, for example, the efficiency of solar cells and other energy-related materials, and how materials switch between different forms,” he says. “Ultrafast techniques allow you to see these kinds of things in a completely new way.”

Related Departments