A fire broke out at around 8:15 a.m. Wednesday in a construction trench on Amherst Alley outside the ATO building. Cambridge firefighters had the blaze under control by around 8:50 a.m.
There were no injuries, although several nearby student residences were evacuated as a precaution.
The cause of the fire is under investigation by members of the Cambridge Fire Department and by MIT safety officials.
This illustration shows a lead sulfide quantum dot array. Each quantum dot (the colored clusters) is 'passivated' by molecules that bind to its surface. Dots that are made up of unequal amounts of lead and sulfur tend to cause electrons (shown in red) to become highly localized, which can substantially lower the electrical transport of the device.Image: Donghun Kim and Jeffrey C. Grossman
Balance is key to making quantum-dot solar cells work
MIT team finds that the ratio of component atoms is vital to performance.
