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posted by martyb on Thursday November 10 2016, @09:09AM   Printer-friendly
from the more-faster-computes? dept.

http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/semiconductor_free_microelectronics_are_now_possible_thanks_to_metamaterial

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have fabricated the first semiconductor-free, optically-controlled microelectronic device. Using metamaterials, engineers were able to build a microscale device that shows a 1,000 percent increase in conductivity when activated by low voltage and a low power laser. The discovery paves the way for microelectronic devices that are faster and capable of handling more power, and could also lead to more efficient solar panels. The work was published Nov. 4 in Nature Communications.

[...] A team of researchers in the Applied Electromagnetics Group led by electrical engineering professor Dan Sievenpiper at UC San Diego sought to remove [...] roadblocks to conductivity by replacing semiconductors with free electrons in space. "And we wanted to do this at the microscale," said Ebrahim Forati, a former postdoctoral researcher in Sievenpiper's lab and first author of the study. [...] To address this challenge, Sievenpiper's team fabricated a microscale device that can release electrons from a material without such extreme requirements. The device consists of an engineered surface, called a metasurface, on top of a silicon wafer, with a layer of silicon dioxide in between. The metasurface consists of an array of gold mushroom-like nanostructures on an array of parallel gold strips. The gold metasurface is designed such that when a low DC voltage (under 10 Volts) and a low power infrared laser are both applied, the metasurface generates "hot spots"—spots with a high intensity electric field—that provide enough energy to pull electrons out from the metal and liberate them into space. Tests on the device showed a 1,000 percent change in conductivity. "That means more available electrons for manipulation," Ebrahim said.

Ebrahim Forati et al, Photoemission-based microelectronic devices, Nature Communications (2016). DOI: 10.1038/ncomms13399


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  • (Score: 2) by Dr Spin on Thursday November 10 2016, @06:57PM

    by Dr Spin (5239) on Thursday November 10 2016, @06:57PM (#425238)

    This reminds me of an old technology where the movement of a cloud of electrons in a vacuum was controlled by an electric field (typically around 7V).

    I seem to recall thorium and heat were often involved.

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