Free electron lasers (FELs) have proven their worth, but next-generation light sources will have to do better than produce ultrabright x-ray pulses 100 or so times a second. What’s needed is megahertz rep rate, a million times a second. Since it’s electrons that make the x-rays, the only way to achieve that kind of performance [...]

Berkeley Lab researchers have directed the first self-assembly of nanoparticles into multi-layered thin films of gold that are device-ready for potential applications in computer memory storage, energy harvesting, energy storage, remote-sensing, catalysis, light management and plasmonics.

Berkeley Lab researchers may have opened the door to a simpler approach for the fabrication of plasmonic materials – one of the hottest new fields in high tech – by inducing polyhedral-shaped silver nanocrystals to self-assemble into three-dimensional millimeter-sized supercrystals of the highest possible density.

Paving the way for fast-as-light, ultra-compact communication systems and optoelectronic devices, Berkeley Lab scientists have developed a technique for steering the curved path of plasmonic Airy beams – combinations of laser light and quasi-particles called surface plasmon polaritons.

Berkeley Lab researchers have achieved plasmonic properties in the semiconductor nanocrystals known as quantum dots. Until now, plasmonic properties, which hold promise for superfast computers and ultrapowerful optical microscopes among many other possibilities, have been limited to nanostructures featuring interfaces between noble metals and dielectrics. This new discovery should make the already hot field of plasmonic technology even hotter.