Game Changer Silicene, Fabricated for First Time
In a major breakthrough for the electronics industry, a team of researchers have managed to create a transistor with silicene.
Silicene, like graphene, is a material with honey-combed hexagonal structure comprising silicon atoms but measures only one-atom thick. The structure allows it to perform as an excellent electrical conductor, slotting its role in manufacture of super-faster electronic chips and in the computer industry, UPI reported. Efforts to produce silicene in the past failed as exposure to air rendered it unstable. Researchers at The University of Texas, Austin managed to overcome this challenge to fabricate the transistor.
"Apart from introducing a new player in the playground of 2-D materials, silicene, with its close chemical affinity to silicon, suggests an opportunity in the road map of the semiconductor industry. The major breakthrough here is the efficient low-temperature manufacturing and fabrication of silicene devices for the first time," said Deji Akinwande, an assistant professor at the Cockrell School's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the university, in a news release.
According to Tech Times, the researchers managed the feat by teaming with scientists in Italy. They worked around the air exposure problem by working in vacuum to fabricate a thin-layer of silicene sandwiched between silver and alumina.
While the component's performance is yet to be revealed, researchers said they would continue efforts to find ways to fabricate silicene, given its potential.
