If you think of a single atom as a grain of sand, then a wavelength of visible light—which is a thousand times larger than ...

Materials scientists can learn a lot about a sample material by shooting lasers at it. With nonlinear optical microscopy—a ...

Imagine having a super-powered lens that uncovers hidden secrets of ultra-thin materials used in our gadgets. Research led by University of Florida engineering professor Megan Butala enables a novel ...

New studies of the “platypus of materials” help explain how their atoms arrange themselves into orderly, but nonrepeating, ...

What is Atom Probe Tomography? Atom Probe Tomography (APT) is a powerful analytical technique that provides three-dimensional (3D) imaging and chemical composition analysis of materials at the atomic ...

Electron diffraction is a powerful analytical technique used to study the atomic structure of materials. It involves the interaction of a beam of electrons with a crystalline sample, resulting in a ...

Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory made a big leap in their research into all things small. Within the past few months, scientists there began using what they say is the world’s most ...

For decades, the origins of "soft spots" in amorphous materials like glass remained a mystery. A new study shows that ...

Since their discovery in 1982, exotic materials known as quasicrystals have bedeviled physicists and chemists. Their atoms arrange themselves into chains of pentagons, decagons and other shapes to ...