ultra-low energy electronic devices tagged posts

Topological Material Switched off and on for the 1st time

his is an Na3Bi structure shown with sodium atoms white and bismuth atoms blue.
Credit: FLEET

This is an Na3Bi structure shown with sodium atoms white and bismuth atoms blue.
Credit: FLEET

Over the last decade, there has been much excitement about the discovery, recognised by the Nobel Prize in Physics only 2 years ago, that there are two types of insulators: normal insulators which don’t conduct electricity, and topological insulators – newly discovered materials that conduct electricity only on their edges.

Now, FLEET researchers at Monash University, Australia, have for the first time successfully ‘switched’ a material between these two states of matter via application of an electric-field. This is the first step in creating a functioning topological transistor – a proposed new generation of ultra-low energy electronic devices.

Ultra-low energy electronics such as topol...

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