A research team at the University of Kansas has used high-powered lasers to track the speed and movement of electrons inside an innovative material that is just one atom thick. Their findings are published in the current issue of ACS Nano, a peer-reviewed journal focused on nanoscience. The work at KU’s Ultrafast Laser Lab could help point the way to next-generation transistors and solar panels made of solid, atomically thin materials. “When the solid is a thin layer, electrons are confined in this thin layer,” said Hui Zhao, associate professor of physics and astronomy, who leads the team. “An electron that is free to move in two dimensions behaves very differently from those moving in all the three dimensions. It totally changes how electrons interact with environment. Under the right conditions, electrons moving in two dimensions are less likely to collide with other things in the solid, and hence their motion is less disrupted. Faster electron motion often leads to better performance of devices.” To monitor the electrons, Zhao and graduate students Qiannan Cui, Frank Ceballos and Nardeep Kumar created a single-atom layer of tungsten disulphide, a material used in solar cells and as a lubricant. The KU researchers
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