Only a tiny fraction of all the materials that are theoretically possible have been made. The potential exists for materials that would yield low-cost photovoltaics, self-repairing and self-regulating devices, integrated photonic (light-based) technologies and nano-sized electronic and mechanical systems that far outstrip our current microtechnology capabilities.
Berkeley Lab researchers are studying the chemical and electronic structures and processes that govern material properties, taking the initial steps towards synthesizing novel materials at the atomic and molecular levels and learning to fashion these materials into valuable nanodevices.
Research into novel materials, ultrafast processes and nanodevices flourishes at the Advanced Light Source, which generates some of science’s brightest beams of x-ray and ultraviolet light in pulses as short as a few millionths of a billionth of a second; the National Center for Electron Microscopy, one of the world’s foremost centers for electron microscopy and microcharacterization; and the Molecular Foundry, which provides users with instruments, techniques and collaborators for the synthesis, characterization and theoretical studies of nanoscale materials.
