In a result decades in the making, Los Alamos scientists have achieved light amplification with electrically driven devices based on solution-cast semiconductor nanocrystals — tiny specs of semiconductor matter made via chemical synthesis and often called colloidal quantum dots. This demonstration, reported in the scientific journal Nature, opens the door to a completely new class of electrically pumped lasing devices — highly flexible, solution-processable laser diodes that can be prepared on any crystalline or non-crystalline substrate without the need for sophisticated vacuum-based growth techniques or a highly controlled clean-room environment. Read the full article here. Courtesy/LANL