A new class of materials developed at the University of Arkansas may influence the next generation of nano-devices, in which integrated circuits are composed of many layers of dissimilar materials, such as ferromagnetic and superconducting oxides.
The researchers used innovative cross-sectional scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne Center for Nanoscale Materials to develop the first direct view of the physical and chemical behavior of electrons and atoms at boundary regions within the dissimilar materials.
"The fundamental issue here is that conventional modern day electronics based on silicon is very problematic to operate on a nanometer scale," said Jak Chakhalian, professor of physics in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas. "Integrated circuits have many, many layers of functional material. As layers get thinner, the materials start behaving strangely and often unreliably. Now the question of the size of the interface, where two materials 'talk' to each other or influence each other, becomes critical."
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