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doi-10.1126/science.abe8177 goddam-awful-sci-journalling

The World’s Thinnest Technology – Only Two Atoms Thick - California News Times [californianewstimes.com]:

Scientific Advances: Researchers at Tel Aviv University have designed the world’s smallest technology, with a thickness of only two atoms. According to researchers, the new technology proposes a way to store electrical information in the thinnest unit known in science, one of the most stable and inert materials in nature. Allowing quantum mechanical electron tunneling through atomic thin films could accelerate the information reading process far beyond current technology.

This study was conducted by scientists at the School of Physics and Astronomy in Raymond and Beverly Suckler and the School of Chemistry in Raymond and Beverly Suckler. This group includes Maayan Vizner Stern, Yuval Waschitz, Dr. Wei Cao, Dr. Iftach Nevo, Prof. Eran Sela, Prof. Michael Urbakh, Prof. Oded Hod, and Dr. Moshe Ben Shalom. The work is currently Science magazine.

“Our research stems from curiosity about the behavior of atoms and electrons in solid materials, which has created many technologies that support our modern lifestyle,” said Dr. Ben Shalom. say. “We (and many other scientists) try to understand, predict, and even control the fascinating properties of these particles as they condense into regular structures called crystals, for example. At the heart of the computer is a small crystalline device designed to switch between two states that respond differently (such as “yes” or “no”, “up” or “down”). Without this dichotomy, that wouldn’t be possible. Encodes and processes the information. The real challenge is to find a mechanism that allows switching on smaller, faster, and cheaper devices.

Today’s state-of-the-art devices consist of small crystals containing only about 1 million atoms (about 100 atoms in height, width, and thickness), so millions of these devices You can push it into this area about 1 million times. One coin that each device switches at a speed of about 1 million times per second.

Following innovation, for the first time, researchers were able to reduce the thickness of crystalline devices to only two atoms. Dr. Ben Shalom emphasizes that such a thin structure allows memory based on the quantum power of electrons to quickly and efficiently cross barriers that are only a few atoms thick. Therefore, it has the potential to significantly improve electronic devices in terms of speed, density, and energy consumption.

In this study, researchers used two-dimensional materials. It is a one-atom-thick layer of boron and nitrogen, repeatedly arranged in a hexagonal structure. In their experiments, artificially assembling these two layers was able to break the symmetry of this crystal. “In a natural three-dimensional state, this material is made up of multiple layers that overlap each other, with each layer rotating 180 degrees with respect to the adjacent layers (antiparallel configuration),” says Dr. Benshalom. ..

“In the laboratory, we were able to artificially stack layers in a non-rotating parallel configuration, which allows atoms of the same type to have strong repulsive forces between them (due to the same charge). However, in practice, crystals prefer to slide one layer slightly relative to the other, so only half of the atoms in each layer overlap completely, Overlapping atoms have opposite charges. All other atoms are above or above. Below an empty space — the center of the hexagon. In this artificial stacking configuration, the layers are quite different from each other, for example. If only the boron atoms overlap in the top layer, the opposite is true in the bottom layer. “

Dr. Benshalom also emphasizes the work of a theoretical team that has performed numerous computer simulations. Thanks to this basic understanding, we can expect attractive responses in other layered systems with broken symmetry, “he says.

Maayan Wizner Stern, a PhD student who led the study, explains: Perpendicular to the layer plane. When an external electric field is applied in the opposite direction, the system slides laterally to switch the polarization direction. The switched polarization is stable even if the external field is shut down. In this respect, this system is similar to the thick 3D ferroelectric system widely used in today’s technology. “

“The ability to force crystal and electron configurations in such thin systems, with unique polarization and inversion properties due to weak van der Waals forces between layers, is not limited to boron and nitrogen crystals,” Benshalom said. He adds. .. “We expect the same behavior in many layered crystals with the correct symmetry. The concept of interlayer slides as a unique and efficient way to control advanced electronic devices is very promising. , We named it Slide-Tronics.

Maayan Vizner Stern concludes: “We are excited to discover what can happen in other states that naturally force us, and we anticipate that other structures that combine additional degrees of freedom are possible. We hope that flipping with and slides will improve today’s electronic devices and also allow other unique ways to control information in future devices. In addition to computer devices, this technology is a detector. We hope to contribute to energy storage and conversion, interaction with light, etc. As we see, our challenge is to discover more crystals with new slippery degrees of freedom. is.”

Reference: M. ViznerStern, Y. Waschitz, W. Cao, I. Nevo, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, E. Sela, M. Urbakh, O. “Interfacial ferroelectricity by van der Waals sliding” by Hod and M.Ben Shalom, June 25, 2021 Science..DOI: 10.1126 / science.abe8177 [sciencemag.org]

This study was funded through support from the European Research Council (ERC Initiation Grant), the Israeli Science Foundation (ISF), and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST).

Journal Reference:
DOI Name 10.1126 Values, (DOI: 10.1126 [doi.org])

Original Submission