A team of engineers from the University of Utah have discovered a new 2D semiconducting material that could outperform silicon, making electronics cooler and more efficient.
“The semiconductor, made of the elements tin and oxygen, or tin monoxide (SnO), is a layer of 2D material only one atom thick, allowing electrical charges to move through it much faster than conventional 3D materials,” reported Phys.org, “and because the electrons move through one layer instead of bouncing around in a 3D material, there will be less friction, meaning the processors will not get as hot as normal computer chips.”
Graphene, molybdenun disulfide, and borophene are other types of 2D semiconductor materials, but materials science and engineering associate professor Ashutosh Tiwari, the leader of the team, said that these materials “only allow the movement of N-type, or negative, electrons,” and both negative electrons and positive charges are needed to create an electronic device. Phys.org reported, “The tin monoxide material discovered by Tiwari and his team is the first stable P-type 2D semiconductor material ever in existence.”
“This material could be used in transistors, the lifeblood of all electronic devices such as computer processors and graphics processors in desktop computers and mobile devices” according to Phys.org, and a paper describing the research was recently published in Advanced Electronic Materials.
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