Most materials, especially metals and ceramics, are crystals. Their atoms are arranged in three-dimensional lattices that repeat the same exact pattern, over and over again. But there's a well-known ...

Imperfections of crystal structure, especially edge dislocations of an elongated nature, deeply modify basic properties of the entire material and, in consequence, drastically limit its applications.

Research offers insights into how crystal dislocations -- a common type of defect in materials -- can affect electrical and heat transport through crystals, at a microscopic, quantum mechanical level.

Quantum engineers have spent years trying to tame the fragility of qubits, only to be thwarted by the tiniest imperfections in the materials they use. Now a new line of research flips that problem on ...

Illustration of an intense laser pulse hitting a diamond crystal from top right, driving elastic and plastic waves (curved lines) through the material. The laser pulse creates linear defects, known as ...

Materials can deform plastically by atomic-scale line defects called dislocations. Many technical applications are based on this fundamental process, such as forging, but we also rely on the power of ...

The formation of lithium dendrites is still a mystery, but materials engineers study the conditions that enable dendrites and how to stop them. Historically, as in decades ago, rechargeable lithium ...

Material structures are rarely perfect, but researchers at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) have now identified a way to make them more so. By monitoring in real time how ...

Physicists from MIPT and the Joint Institute for High Temperatures of the Russian Academy of Sciences described the mobility of line defects, or dislocations, in uranium dioxide. This will enable ...

Hoeganaes Endowed Assistant Professor Yong-Jie Hu has received a five-year NSF-CAREER award for his project “Understanding Energy Statistics and Glide Mechanisms of Dislocations in Concentrated ...