electronics applications tagged posts

Network of conducting and insulating rivers as seen in a metal-oxide in the middle of a phase transition. Credit: A.S. Mueller

Physicists have for the first time succeeded in directly visualising on small scales how a material abruptly changes its state from conducting to insulating at low temperatures. Researchers provide evidence for a 60-year-old theory that explains this phenomenon and pave the way for more energy efficient technologies. Materials that conduct electricity at high temperature but are insulating at lower temperatures have been known for decades. However, until recently it was not possible to directly measure how such phase transitions proceed on small length scales...