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martyb [soylentnews.org] writes:

When it comes to the semiconductor industry, silicon has reigned as king in the electronics field, but it is coming to the end of its physical limits.

To more effectively power the electrical grid, locomotives and even electric cars, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists are turning to diamond as an ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor.

[...] "We said to ourselves 'let's take this pure high quality CVD [(chemical vapor deposition)] diamond and irradiate it to see if we can tailor the carrier lifetime,'" [LLNL physicist Paulius] Grivackas said. "Eventually, we nailed down the understanding of which irradiation defect is responsible for carrier lifetimes and how does the defect behave under annealing at technologically relevant temperatures."

Photoconductive diamond switches produced this way can be used, for example, in the power grid to control current and voltage surges, which can fry out the equipment. Current silicon switches are big and bulky, but the diamond-based ones can accomplish the same thing with a device that could fit on the tip of a finger, Grivickas said.

Journal Reference:
P. Grivickas, P. Ščajev, N. Kazuchits, et al. Carrier recombination and diffusion in high-purity diamond after electron irradiation and annealing, Applied Physics Letters (DOI: 10.1063/5.0028363 [doi.org])

Original Submission