Materials scientists have long known that introducing defects into three-dimensional materials can improve their mechanical and electronic properties. Now a new Northwestern study finds how defects ...

A Chinese research team has investigated impurity and defect levels in solar cells based on mono cast wafers and have found that around 30% of the devices present an “excessive” reduction in power ...

Material optimization: Strain can be applied to overcome doping limitations in semiconductors. (Courtesy: B Huang) A new universal theory and three basic rules for how defects in semiconductors behave ...

The wide availability of light-emitting devices (LEDs) for consumer use has led to a dramatic decrease in the cost of lighting our homes and other buildings. This is owing to the much higher ...

“Traps” are places where an electron can be found "trapped" within a semiconductor. These traps are highly undesirable because they prevent electrons from moving around quickly so that they can be ...

The semiconductor industry and pretty much all of electronics today are dominated by silicon. In transistors, computer chips, and solar cells, silicon has been a standard component for decades. But ...

Metrology is the science of measuring, characterizing, and analyzing materials. Within metrology, there are several technologies used to detect material defects on a very small scale – precision on ...

Semiconductors may be small, but the impacts they have are significant. Semiconductors used in life-dependent applications, such as pacemakers, defibrillators, life support systems, automotive safety ...