Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, December 23, with the process miniaturization of the chip manufacturing industry gradually coming to an end, the field of nanoelectronics urgently needs to find a substitute for silicon, and graphene, the most anticipated material in the past decade, has been used, but it may not be able to reach the market in a short period of time.

Walter de Heer, one of the experts of the Georgia Institute of Technology, took the lead in developing a new graphene-based nanoelectronics platform-monolithic carbon atoms, which is compatible with traditional microelectronic manufacturing, paving the way for human beings to change from silicon materials to new materials.

CTOnews.com learned that the research has been published in the journal Nature Communications. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-34369-4

The team also discovered a possible quasiparticle. Their findings help humans make smaller, faster, more efficient and sustainable computer chips and have a potential impact on quantum and high-performance computing.

Officials say the technology helps make smaller, faster, more efficient and more sustainable computer chips and has potential implications for quantum and high-performance computing.

"the power of graphene lies in its flat two-dimensional structure, connected by the strongest known chemical bonds," de Heer said. "it was clear from the beginning that graphene is much more miniaturized than silicon and can make smaller devices that can run at higher speeds and generate much less heat. This means that, in principle, graphene chips can encapsulate more components than silicon chips."

In 2001, de Heer proposed another electronic form based on epitaxial graphene. He found that a layer of graphene was spontaneously formed on top of silicon carbide crystals, which are semiconductors used in high-power electronic devices.

At the time, researchers found that current could flow "without resistance" along the edge of epitaxial graphene, and graphene devices could be seamlessly connected without wires. This combination can create an electronic form that depends on the unique optical properties of graphene electrons.

"Quantum interference has been observed in carbon nanotubes at low temperatures, and we hope to see similar effects in epitaxial graphene ribbons and networks," de Heer said. "this important property of graphene cannot be realized by silicon."

In order to create a new nanoelectronics platform, the researchers built an improved form of epitaxial graphene on silicon carbide crystal substrate. They worked with researchers from the International Center for nanoparticles and Nanosystems at Tianjin University in China to produce unique silicon carbide chips from electronic-grade silicon carbide crystals.

The researchers used electron beam lithography, a common method in microelectronics, to carve graphene nanostructures and weld their edges to silicon carbide chips. Finally, to measure the electronic properties of their graphene platform, the team also used a cryogenic device that enabled them to record properties from near-zero temperature to room temperature.

They found that the charge observed in the edge state of graphene is similar to photons in an optical fiber and can be propagated over great distances without scattering. They found that the charge moved tens of thousands of nanometers along the edge before scattering, while graphene electrons in previous techniques could only travel about 10 nanometers.

Contrary to what the researchers expected, the edge current is not generated by electrons or holes, but by a unique quasiparticle. Oddly enough, this quasiparticle has neither electric charge nor energy, but it has no resistance when it moves. In addition, they also observed that the composition of the mixed quasiparticles moved on the opposite side of the edge of graphene.

This unique property suggests that the quasiparticle they found may be the kind of quasiparticle that physicists have been looking for for decades, namely the Mayorana fermion predicted by Italian theoretical physicist Ettore Ettore Majorana in 1937.

"developing electronics using this new quasiparticle in a seamless graphene network is changing the rules of the game," de Heer said.

But don't be happy too early, nothing can be achieved overnight. According to de Heer, it may take another five to 10 years to see the first graphene-based electronics. But thanks to this new graphene platform, such technologies are closer to maturity than ever before.

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