Tiny, easy-to-produce particles, called quantum dots, may soon take the place of more expensive single crystal semiconductors in advanced electronics found in solar panels, camera sensors and medical imaging tools. Although quantum dots have begun to break into the consumer market—in the form of quantum dot TVs—they have been hampered by long-standing uncertainties about their…
A New Way to Control Light from Hybrid Crystals
Scientists have found a new way to control light emitted by exotic crystal semiconductors, which could lead to more efficient solar cells and other advances in electronics, according to a Rutgers-led study in the journal Materials Today. Their discovery involves crystals called hybrid perovskites, which consist of interlocking organic and inorganic materials, and they have…
Quantum Sensor Improves Cancer Treatment, Long-range 3D Imaging
A new quantum sensor developed by researchers at the University of Waterloo’s Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) has proven it can outperform existing technologies and promises significant advancements in long-range 3D imaging and monitoring the success of cancer treatments. The sensors are the first of their kind and are based on semiconductor nanowires that can…
New Technique Synthesizes Nanographene on Metal Oxide Surfaces
Nanostructures based on carbon are promising materials for nanoelectronics. However, to be suitable, they would often need to be formed on non-metallic surfaces, which has been a challenge—up to now. Researchers at Friedrich-Alexander-Universitäthave found a method of forming nanographenes on metal oxide surfaces. Their research, conducted within the framework of collaborative research centre 953—Synthetic Carbon…
Repulsive Photons Avoid Each Other in Semiconductor Material
Light particles normally do not “feel” each other because there is no interaction acting between them. Researchers at ETH have now succeeded in manipulating photons inside a semiconductor material in such a way as to make them repel each other nevertheless. Two light beams crossing each other do not deflect one another. That is because,…
Room Temperature, 2D Platform Advances Quantum Technology
Quantum computers promise to be a revolutionary technology because their elementary building blocks, qubits, can hold more information than the binary, 0-or-1 bits of classical computers. But to harness this capability, hardware must be developed that can access, measure and manipulate individual quantum states. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied…
Physicists Create Revolutionary Exotic Electron Liquid
By bombarding an ultrathin semiconductor sandwich with powerful laser pulses, physicists at the University of California, Riverside, have created the first “electron liquid” at room temperature. The achievement opens a pathway for development of the first practical and efficient devices to generate and detect light at terahertz wavelengths—between infrared light and microwaves. Such devices could…
Visible Laser to Study Semiconductor Properties
LED lights and monitors, and quality solar panels were born of a revolution in semiconductors that efficiently convert energy to light or vice versa. Now, next-generation semiconducting materials are on the horizon, and in a new study, researchers have uncovered eccentric physics behind their potential to transform lighting technology and photovoltaics yet again. Comparing the…
Breakthrough Could Double Efficiency of Organic Electronics
Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have discovered a simple new tweak that could double the efficiency of organic electronics. OLED-displays, plastic-based solar cells and bioelectronics are just some of the technologies that could benefit from their new discovery, which deals with “double-doped” polymers. The majority of our everyday electronics are based on…
Interatomic Light Rectifier Generates Directed Electric Currents
The absorption of light in semiconductor crystals without inversion symmetry can generate electric currents. Researchers at the Max-Born-Institute have now generated directed currents at terahertz (THz) frequencies, much higher than the clock rates of current electronics. They show that electronic charge transfer between neighboring atoms in the crystal lattice represents the underlying mechanism. Solar cells…
Scientists Push Quantum Optic Networks Closer to Reality
Scientists have moved quantum optic networks a step closer to reality. The ability to precisely control the interactions of light and matter at the nanoscale could help such a network transmit larger amounts of data more quickly and securely than an electrical network. A team of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne…
Two Dimensions Are Better than Three
For the past 60 years, the electronics industry and the average consumer have benefited from the continuous miniaturization, increased storage capacity and decreased power consumption of electronic devices. However, this era of scaling that has benefited humanity is rapidly coming to end. To continue shrinking the size and power consumption of electronics, new materials and…
New Quantum Materials Could Take Computing Devices Beyond the Semiconductor Era
Researchers from Intel Corp. and the University of California, Berkeley, are looking beyond current transistor technology and preparing the way for a new type of memory and logic circuit that could someday be in every computer on the planet. In a paper appearing online Dec. 3 in advance of publication in the journal Nature, the…
Faster Electrons Improve Semiconductors
Researchers have found a way to speed up the electrons in semiconductors, which could lead to improved solar power and transistor use. A team from the Graduate School of Bio-Applications and Systems Engineering at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT) have found a process to speed up the movement of electrons in organic…
Hidden Gapless States on the Path to Semiconductor Nanocrystals
When chemists from the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw were starting work on a new material designed for the efficient production of nanocrystalline zinc oxide, they didn’t expect any surprises. They were thus greatly astonished when the electrical properties of the changing material turned out to be extremely…
New Electrochemistry Theory Decodes Unexplained Behavior
When it comes to designing and optimizing mechanical systems, scientists understand the physical laws surrounding them well enough to create computer models that can predict their properties and behavior. However, scientists who are working to design better electrochemical systems, such as batteries or supercapacitors, don’t yet have a comprehensive model of the driving forces that…
Boron Nitride Separation Process Could Facilitate Higher Efficiency Solar Cells
A team of semiconductor researchers based in France has used a boron nitride separation layer to grow indium gallium nitride (InGaN) solar cells that were then lifted off their original sapphire substrate and placed onto a glass substrate. By combining the InGaN cells with photovoltaic (PV) cells made from materials such as silicon or gallium…
Levitating 2D Semiconductor Offers Superior Performance
Atomically thin 2D semiconductors have been drawing attention for their superior physical properties over silicon semiconductors; nevertheless, they are not the most appealing materials due to their structural instability and costly manufacturing process. To shed some light on these limitations, a KAIST research team suspended a 2D semiconductor on a dome-shaped nanostructure to produce a…
New Molecular Wires for Single-Molecule Electronic Devices
Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology designed a new type of molecular wire doped with organometallic ruthenium to achieve unprecedentedly higher conductance than earlier molecular wires. The origin of high conductance in these wires is fundamentally different from similar molecular devices and suggests a potential strategy for developing highly conducting “doped” molecular wires. Since their…
New Material Could Improve Efficiency of Computer Processing and Memory
A team of researchers led by the University of Minnesota has developed a new material that could potentially improve the efficiency of computer processing and memory. The researchers have filed a patent on the material with support from the Semiconductor Research Corporation, and people in the semiconductor industry have already requested samples of the material.…
Blaming China, Qualcomm Nixes Takeover of Rival Semiconductor Firm
American computer chip conglomerate Qualcomm has announced that it will drop its proposed $43 acquisition of Dutch competitor NXP, after the company was unable to gain approval from antitrust authorities in China. The ultimate deadline was midday Thursday in China, and Beijing’s Ministry of Commerce ran out the clock without approving the takeover. As part…
Taking the Heat Off
New material draws heat away from hotspots much faster than current materials, which could lead to dramatic improvements in computer chip performance and energy efficiency Working to address “hotspots” in computer chips that degrade their performance, UCLA engineers have developed a new semiconductor material, defect-free boron arsenide, that is more effective at drawing and dissipating…
Semiconductor Study Offers New Industry Opportunities
An international team of scientist of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU), Leibniz University Hannover (Leibniz Universität Hannover) and the Ioffe Institute report a way to improve nanocomposite material, opening new opportunities in industry. The study, titled “The mechanism of charge carrier generation at the TiO2 — n-Si heterojunction activated by gold nanoparticles,”…
U.S.-China Tariff Spat Could Hit Semiconductor, Electronics Industries Hard
President Donald Trump recently announced that he would seek tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods, following up on a 2016 campaign promise to use tariffs in order to cut U.S. trade deficits. The White House has stated that the tariffs, which will initially target over 800 kinds of products worth $34 billion in imports, are retaliation for what it…