A jolt reveals a brief flash of memory among battery ions (IMAGE)

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

A jolt reveals a brief flash of memory among battery ions

Caption

A laser apparatus built by SLAC lead scientist Matthias C. Hoffmann for experiments that shook ions traveling through a solid-state battery electrolyte with a jolt of voltage. To researchers' surprise, most of the ions responded by reversing course and hopping to their previous positions before returning to their usual erratic paths -- the first indication that they remembered, in a sense, where they had been. 

Credit

Andrey D. Poletayev/Oxford University

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