Diamond nanomaterials are considered hot candidates for low-cost photocatalysts. They can be activated by light and can then accelerate certain reactions between water and CO2 and produce carbon-neutral 'solar fuels'. The EU project DIACAT has now doped such diamond materials with boron and shown at BESSY II how this could significantly improve the photocatalytic properties.

Someday your self-driving car could react to hazards before you even see them, thanks to a laser-based imaging technology that can peek around corners.

Light can generate an electrical current in semiconductor materials. This is how solar cells generate electricity from sunlight and how smart phone cameras can take photographs. To collect the generated electrical current, called photocurrent, an electric voltage is needed to force the current to flow in only one direction.

By forcing light to go through a smaller gap than ever before, researchers have paved the way for computers based on light instead of electronics.