Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory used specialized tools to study materials at the atomic scale and analyze defects at the materials’ surface. Results of their research help to better understand these materials used for advanced electronics, enabling innovative data storage and computation methods.
The team modified a commercial atomic force microscope with artificial intelligence to precisely assemble and detect patterns in bismuth ferrite. This method avoids invasive electrode deposition, which complicates the process and restricts how small the structures can be.
"With AI, we can use the atomic force microscopy tip to align the electric polarization at the nanoscale, so we can write, read and erase these patterns — known as topological structures — on demand," said ORNL's Marti Checa, the study’s leader.
Published in ACS Nano, this proof-of-concept highlights how multistate information manipulation boosts information storage potential. Building on ORNL’s work in nanoscale materials, this research aligns with ongoing innovations enhancing memory technologies.
Reference
Autonomous Multistate Nanoencoding Using Combinatorial Ferroelectric Closure Domains in BiFeO₃
Marti Checa, Ruben Millan-Solsona, Yongtao Liu, Bharat Pant, Alexander Puretzky, Ye Cao, Puneet Kaur, Jan-Chi Yang, Liam Collins, Neus Domingo, Kyle P. Kelley, Stephen Jesse, and Rama Vasudevan
A eutectic mixture of methylammonium chloride and a zinc halide melts at about 100 degrees Celsius, forming a transient liquid layer at perovskite grain boundaries that lets crystals merge into larger, cleaner grains. The resulting films reached a carrier lifetime of roughly 295 microseconds and a surface recombination velocity of 0.3 cm/s, the lowest reported for lead halide perovskites.
Researchers at the University of Sydney have directly observed hydrogen dissolved in the interstitial spaces between metal atoms in alloys, a world first. Using cryogenic atom probe tomography with deuterium tracers, electron microscopy and theoretical calculations, the team showed hydrogen occupies sites between atoms rather than only collecting at defects, and that local atomic arrangement and chemistry dictate where it prefers to reside.
Researchers have developed carbon dots whose fluorescence shifts across the visible spectrum, from blue to red, depending on concentration, liquid environment and acidity. By tuning the particles' surfaces, the team produced versions that change color reversibly as pH shifts, then incorporated them into polymer powders, molded shapes and flexible films.
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