Growing Micro-Crystals

 


A new paper was just published in Advanced Materials. A team from India is studying a group of special crystals. The original researchers are from the Physics department at IISER Pune in India, IISER Mohali and Brookhaven National Laboratory in the U.S.

They are researching a new way to grow crystals called CsPbBr3. 

The properties of these crystals are promising. They should make for updates to existing photo detectors and electronic devices. 

CsPbBr3’s properties are superb for use in optoelectronic devices. This means the crystals can interact with light. They are stable at high temperatures. This makes the crystals both durable and reliable.

In the past, researchers had difficulty growing large, high-quality CsPbBr3 crystals that had ferroelectric properties and ultra low dark current. This has limited the use of crystals in optical switches, ultra sensitive detectors, and solar cells. 

The current researchers have created a way to grow crystals at near room temperatures. The process is called solvothermal synthesis. It involves a special solution that dissolves materials to form the crystals. 

The first author of the study is a man named Gokul Anilkumar. He reports, “ One of the most exciting aspects of this method is that crystals grown using this method show ferroelectric properties.” 

There is a special property that ferroelectric materials maintain called electric polarization. This property can be reversed by introducing an electric field. 

Second Harmonic Generation is a method to test if the crystals can generate new light frequencies. Piezo response force microscopy is a technique to measure the mechanical response to electric fields. This is to ensure that the crystals are ferroelectric.  Both of these sophisticated techniques were used by the researchers. 

Micro devices were made and researchers tested the crystals Electrical conductivity. The crystals allowed very low current to flow in the dark. This means that the crystals can detect very low levels of radiation or light. They are shown to be 100 times more sensitive than the generic silicon photodetectors.

Dr Atikur Rahman led the collaborative work on the project. He summarized the potential of the applications of crystals.

“The ability to grow high-quality CsPbBr3 micro-crystal is a major step forward in material science. It pays the way for the development of next generation optoelectronic devices, such as more efficient LEDs and ultra sensitive sensors for light and x-ray or other radiation, which could transform how we use and generate energy.”

The future is bright for this new generation of nanocrystals! 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mike Giradi from Stereotimes commentary on Holostage Room Treatments

I have been  friends with Mike Giradi for a few years and he has helped me test numerous designs .    I was so honored a few weeks ago when he agreed to give these Holostages a few words.  From. Mike G. The sound was a little closed in at first, but then it really opened up to prove it is another great audio product. The noise floor is greatly reduced. I am hearing details I've never heard before. When it's in the recording, the soundstage widens in all directions. The timbre of each instrument is spot on. The six Holostages installed in my room aided in the C13 alignment of air molecules to a far greater extent than the Bybee IQSE devices I had previously been using. Every instrument had greater depth, pop and presence. Listening to classical music on movie soundtracks is incredible now. The Holostages installed on my BACCH4MAC and monoblocks was the answer to what was needed. The noise floor dropped significantly in both cases resulting in greater clarity and music...
Read more

Queen Bee 🐝

Image
  Bees hide an interesting secret. When the hive loses its queen, who alone is able to give life to the colony and maintain order in a perfectly organized society, all seems lost. The life of the hive slows down. Without new eggs, the future is lost. In a few weeks, the colony may be doomed. But the bees do not panic. Nor do they expect salvation from outside. Demonstrating extraordinary collective intelligence and profound instincts, they trigger spectacular emergency procedures, almost unimaginable in a world dominated by insects. --- ◆ The transformation begins with a simple but essential choice The worker bees choose common larvae - those who would normally be mere workers. They are nothing special. They are not born different. But their fate changes completely. They are chosen to receive a special food: royal jelly. A rare substance, produced by healthy bees, rich in proteins, vitamins and bioactive compounds. This is royal food in the purest sense of the word. The larvae fed ...
Read more

Novel Acoustic Wave Discovered

Image
  A new diffraction phenomenon was researched and published on January 14, 2025. The team was led by Tohoku University with collaboration from the Japan atomic energy agency and the RIKEN Center for emergent matter science. Surface acoustic waves (SAWs) are elastic vibrations. They travel along the surface of materials, not unlike ripples on a pond. SAWs are an important part of frequency filters used in every day devices like our cell phones. These devices change electrical signals in vibrations, or ripples. This occurs because of the piezoelectric  effect and it enables efficient signal processing. During this experiment, the team created a periodic array of magnetic nanoscale materials. The magnetic array is a sort of specialized grating that the waves passed through. The scientists were surprised. Instead of the usual symmetric defraction, the team saw something different. They observed a completely new, asymmetrical diffraction of SAWs called ‘non-reciprocal defraction’....
Read more