Berkeley Lab researchers have shown that selective placement of strain can alter the electronic phase and its spatial arrangement in correlated electron materials, a class of materials that can display properties such as colossal magnetoresistance and high-temperature superconductivity.

The electron mobility and other unique features of graphene hold great promise for nanoscale electronics and photonics, but graphene has no bandgap. Now Berkeley Lab researchers have engineered a bandgap in bilayer graphene that can be precisely controlled from 0 to .25 electron volts at room temperature, making possible new kinds of nanotransistors and nanoscale optical devices in the infrared range.

Berkeley Lab researchers have successfully demonstrated that electric fields can be used as ON/OFF switches in doped multiferroic films, a development that holds promise for future magnetic data storage and spintronic devices.