Researchers observe electrons zipping around in crystalsThe end of the silicon age has begun. As com

Researchers observe electrons zipping around in crystalsThe end of the silicon age has begun. As computer chips approach the physical limits of miniaturization and power-hungry processors drive up energy costs, scientists are looking to a new crop of exotic materials that could foster a new generation of computing devices that promise to push performance to new heights while skimping on energy consumption.Unlike current silicon-based electronics, which shed most of the energy they consume as waste heat, the future is all about low-power computing. Known as spintronics, this technology relies on a quantum physical property of electrons – up or down spin – to process and store information, rather than moving them around with electricity as conventional computing does.On the quest to making spintronic devices a reality, scientists at the University of Arizona are studying an exotic crop of materials known as transition metal dichalcogenides, or TMDs. TMDs have exciting properties lending themselves to new ways of processing and storing information and could provide the basis of future transistors and photovoltaics – and potentially even offer an avenue toward quantum computing.For example, current silicon-based solar cells convert realistically only about 25 percent of sunlight into electricity, so efficiency is an issue, says Calley Eads, a fifth-year doctoral student in the UA’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry who studies some of the properties of these new materials. “There could be a huge improvement there to harvest energy, and these materials could potentially do this,” she says.Read more. -- source link
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