Diffraction patterns displayed before and after a 20-nanosecond electrical pulse. The star-shaped pattern of small white spots on the left represents the initial charge density wave pattern, which is temporarily melted by the heat from the electrical pulse, as shown on the right. [Credit: Argonne National Laboratory]
Using a novel microscopy technique, the researchers succeeded in manipulating these waves, potentially paving the way for a new generation of supercomputers that sip power instead of guzzling it.
The path toward more energy-efficient HPCs
While today’s high-performance computers (HPCs) have immense computational power, they have an insatiable appetite for energy. Argonne’s own Aurora supercomputer can perform one quintillion calculations per second while consuming up to 60 MW (60,000 kilowatts) of power. For the sake of comparison, an average U.S. house consumes 877 kWh of load per month.
The Argonne researchers focused on a material known as 1T phase tantalum disulfide (1T-TaS2), known for exhibiting charge density waves at room temperature. That property makes 1T-TaS2 a promising candidate for novel electronics. To explore the dynamics of the charge density waves, the team employed a novel technique known as ultrafast electron microscopy with electrical stimulation. This method allowed them to visualize the atomic-scale behavior of the waves in response to electrical pulses as short as 20 nanoseconds.
Metallic charge density waves could forge new electronic switching pathways
An abstract on the research notes that the results suggest that metallic charge density wave phases “may be more robust to electronic switching pathways than insulating ones, motivating further investigations at higher fields and currents in this and other related systems.”
Charudatta Phatak, a materials scientist and deputy division director at Argonne, noted that the technique produced results with an array of applications to energy-efficient microelectronics. “Understanding the fundamental mechanisms of how we can control these charge density waves is important because this can be applied to other materials to control their properties,” he said in a press release.
“This new technique produced results with broad applications to energy-efficient microelectronics,” Phatak said.
