Latest news with #NatureMaterials
Express Tribune
12-05-2025
- Science
- Express Tribune
Chinese researchers develop silicon-free transistor technology faster outpacing Intel, TSMC, and Samsung
Chinese researchers at Peking University have unveiled a potentially game-changing silicon-free transistor, claiming it could outperform the latest chips from Intel, TSMC, and Samsung. The innovation, based on a two-dimensional material known as bismuth oxyselenide, marks a major shift in chip architecture. The transistor employs a gate-all-around (GAAFET) design, with the gate fully enveloping the source—unlike traditional FinFET technology, which provides only partial gate coverage. This full-contact structure significantly reduces energy leakage and allows greater control over current flow, resulting in improved performance. According to the research team, the new transistor operates up to 40% faster than Intel's latest 3nm chips and consumes 10% less power. Tests were conducted under the same conditions used for commercial-grade processors. The findings, published in Nature Materials, suggest the transistor may represent the most efficient and powerful to date. Lead scientist Professor Peng Hailin described the innovation as 'changing lanes' rather than simply improving existing materials. The new design avoids the vertical stack typical of FinFETs and instead resembles an interwoven bridge-like structure, helping overcome miniaturisation challenges as chip sizes approach sub-3nm levels. Two novel bismuth-based compounds power the breakthrough: Bi₂O₂Se as the semiconductor and Bi₂SeO₅ as the gate dielectric. Both materials feature low interface energy, reducing electron scattering and enabling near-resistance-free electron flow. 'This allows electrons to flow with almost no resistance, like water through a smooth pipe,' Peng explained. Importantly, the researchers say their transistor can be fabricated using existing semiconductor infrastructure, potentially easing the path to large-scale production. They have already used the design to create small logic units. If commercialised, the development could significantly disrupt the global chip market and accelerate the shift away from silicon-based technology.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Quantum 'miracle material' can store information in a single dimension thanks to newly discovered magnetic switching
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Magnetic switch traps quantum information carriers in one dimension. | Credit: Brad Baxley, Part to Whole. For use reporting on this study, DOI: 10.1038/s41563-025-02120-1 Scientists have discovered how to use a quantum material to tap into the power of magnetism to store quantum information — thanks to its capacity to support magnetic switching (when the magnetic polarization switches direction). They say it can lead to more viable quantum computing and sensing, thanks to much longer-lasting quantum states. Chromium sulfide bromide is an unusual material that has been likened to filo pastry (thin, folded layers of pastry) thanks to its structure of just a few layers of atoms. Scientists consider it extremely promising for quantum devices because many of its properties can be used for any type of information storage. It can be used to store information using an electric charge, as photons (as light), through magnetism (through the electronic spin) and even via phonons — like vibrations from of the many ways in which chromium sulfide bromide could be used to store information is through excitons — quasi-particles that form when an electron and its hole become bound together. When a photon is moved from its grounded energy state, it effectively leaves behind a hole where it once was. Although they are separated, the photon and the hole remain paired together and become known as an exciton. Previous research has highlighted how these excitons can sometimes form in a straight line in the material. But these excitons also exhibit unusual magnetic properties. At temperatures less than 132 Kelvin (-222 degrees F or -141 degrees C), the material's layers are magnetized and the electrons are aligned,while the direction of the magnetic field switches for each layer in the material. When chromium sulfide bromide is warmed to more than 132 K, the material loses its magnetization as the electrons can move in random directions. In this unmagnetized state, the excitons are no longer trapped and extend over multiple layers of the material. However, when chromium sulfide bromide is only a single atom thick, the excitons are confined to a single dimension. When used in a quantum device, this restriction could allow quantum information in the excitons to be stored much longer than it would otherwise be, as the excitons are less likely to collide with each other and lose the information they carry through decoherence (the loss of quantum information due to interference). Quantum information in one dimension In the new study published Feb. 19 in the journal Nature Materials, scientists reported that they had produced excitons in chromium sulfide bromide by firing pulses of infrared light in 20 bursts lasting only 20 quadrillionths of a second (20 x 10-15). They then used a second infrared laser to nudge the excitons into a higher energy state, before finding they had created two different variations of exciton when they should otherwise have had identical states of energy. When the less energetic pulses were shot by lasers from different axes, the researchers discovered that the direction-dependent excitons could be confined to a single line or expanded into three dimensions. The change from unidimensional; to three-dimensional excitons accounted for how long the excitons could last without colliding with each other. "The magnetic order is a new tuning knob for shaping excitons and their interactions. This could be a game changer for future electronics and information technology," said co-author of the study Rupert Huber , professor of experimental and applied physics at the University of Regensburg, Germany. RELATED STORIES —Newly discovered quantum state could power more stable quantum computers — and a new 2D chip can tap into it —New 'gold-plated' superconductor could be the foundation for massively scaled-up quantum computers in the future —'Quantum memory breakthrough' may lead to a quantum internet One of the key areas the research team wants to pursue next is to investigate whether these excitons could be converted to magnetic excitations in the electronic spin of the material. Were they to achieve this, it could provide a useful method for converting quantum information between different subatomic particles (photons, excitons and electrons). Switching between magnetized and non-magnetized states could provide a fast method for converting photon and spin-based quantum information. The hope with chromium sulfide bromide is to harness all of its properties for use in future devices.
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
AI solves 100-year-old mystery to supercharge scientific discovery
Scientists in the US have solved a century-old puzzle that could fast-track the development of powerful, longer-lasting batteries. The longstanding problem involved determining the exact atomic structures of nanocrystals – tiny, disordered materials critical for advancing everything from electronics to archaeology. Previous methods involve shining an X-ray beam through large, pure crystals to produce clear patterns. But this approach does not work on nanocrystals, which come in the form of a powder and scatter X-rays into indecipherable patterns. Using a custom-built artificial intelligence algorithm, a team from Columbia Engineering in New York were able to observe the pattern produced by nanocrystals in order to infer the material's atomic structure. 'The AI solved this problem by learning everything it could from a database of many thousands of known, but unrelated, structures,' said Simon Billinge, professor of materials science and of applied physics and applied mathematics at Columbia Engineering. 'Just as ChatGPT learns the patterns of language, the AI model learned the patterns of atomic arrangements that nature allows.' The tool they developed, called PXRDnet, is trained on tens of thousands of known materials that allows it to figure out the structure of crystals as small as 10 angstronms – thousands of times thinner than a human hair. It marks a major advance in materials science, allowing researchers to dramatically expand the ability to identify and characterise nanomaterials that were inaccessible with traditional methods. It also demonstrates the massive progress made with artificial intelligence in recent years, with the researchers noting that such a discovery would have previously been thought impossible. 'When I was in middle school, the field was struggling to build algorithms that could tell cats from dogs,' said Gabe Guo, who led the project at Columbia. 'Now, studies like ours underscore the massive power of AI to augment the power of human scientists and accelerate innovation to new levels.' The research was published in the journal Nature Materials on Monday, in a study titled 'Ab initio structure solutions from nanocrystalline powder diffraction data via diffusion models'. 'What particularly excites me is that with relatively little background knowledge in physics or geometry, AI was able to learn to solve a puzzle that has baffled human researchers for a century,' said Hod Lipson, chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Columbia Engineering. 'This is a sign of things to come for many other fields facing long-standing challenges.' Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists Are Making ‘Super-Diamonds' Harder Than Any Mineral on Earth
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." First identified in 1967, lonsdaleite is the hardest naturally-occuring mineral ever discovered—yes, it's even harder than diamonds. Lonsdaleite, however, has only been found in meteorites, suggesting it requires intense heat and pressure to form. In a new study, scientists have taken a huge step forward in perfecting the method to synthesize lonsdaleite, which could lead to multiple scientific breakthroughs. Diamond is the hardest mineral on Earth. This fact would likely pass muster at your local trivia night, but scientists suspect there's more to the geologic story. Diamond is a carbon allotrope, meaning it's a type of carbon that exists in another form due to its environment (in this case, a lot of time and pressure). Charcoal and graphite are also allotropes of carbon. However, there's another allotrope—first identified in 1967 when scientists examining a meteorite in Canyon Diablo, Arizona—known today as lonsdaleite. Named for the Irish crystallographer Dame Kathleen Lonsdale, lonsdaleite's most shocking attribute is that it's even harder than diamond, because while diamond forms with a tetrahedral arrangement in its carbon lattice (known as diamond cubic), lonsdaleite forms a hexagonal one that increases thermal stability and hardness. As you might expect, first finding lonsdaleite on a meteor means this mineral isn't naturally occurring on Earth. That's because it requires more extreme geologic pressures to form than the Earth can provide. A study in 2022 confirmed that lonsdaleite likely forms from 'shock compressions' and high temperatures created during a meteor's impact with Earth, transforming graphite into this ultra-hard mineral. While this dashed hopes for finding a large, naturally-occurring vein of this potentially useful super-diamond, it did reinforce the idea that lonsdaleite could be effectively manufactured. Now, a team of researchers have improved upon existing methods for making lonsdaleite. In the past, synthesized production of lonsdaleite often produced a lot of graphite and diamonds in the process, but this new research optimizes the method for producing these hexagonal diamonds (HD) significantly. The results of the study were published in the journal Nature Materials. 'With potentially superior mechanical properties and an intriguing structure, lonsdaleite has also received intense research interest in materials science,' the authors wrote. 'Nearly pure bulk HD has been obtained in well-designed experiments by applying high pressure and high temperature with a temperature gradient.' The process required a very deft ability to apply pressure and temperature while aligning graphite stacks just so—a process known as Bernal-stacking, or AB-stacking—to keep the layers from sliding. 'To overcome such unfavorable factors for HD growth, we synthesized HD from graphite via intermediate post-graphite phases in which interlayer bonding may lock a near-AB stacking in the compressed graphite and hinder the further sliding of layers during high-temperature stimulation, favoring the formation of HD,' the authors wrote. 'Both our experiments and simulations indicate that, besides the formation of the post-graphite phase, the presence of a temperature gradient is also critical for HD synthesis.' While this is far from an industrial scale process, producing lonsdaleite lab in a will give scientists greater insight into the conditions needed for its rare natural formation, as well as potential advancements in exotic materials (such as superconductors) that can make use of its unique properties. You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists create new ‘super diamond' in major breakthrough
Chinese scientists have created an artificial 'super diamond' much greater in hardness than real ones, an advance that could lead to breakthroughs across several key industries that rely on the material. Natural diamonds mostly have a cubic lattice – or arrangement of their carbon atoms – but a hexagonal crystal structure is known to provide a much stronger material. However, researchers say, the applications of such a hexagonal diamond (HD), known as lonsdaleite, have been 'largely unexplored' due to the low purity and minuscule size of most samples obtained. Previously, the hardest diamonds known have been found only in asteroid and meteoroid impact craters. For instance, lonsdaleite was first discovered in the Canyon Diablo meteorite in Arizona in 1967. The synthesis of this material in labs has also remained unverified beyond a few studies. Now, a new study, published in the journal Nature Materials, reports the synthesis of 'well-crystallised, nearly pure HD' by heating highly compressed graphite. Researchers led by Liu Bingbing and Yao Mingguang from northeastern China's Jilin University show that HD can be formed from what scientists call a 'post-graphite phase' when graphite is compressed under temperature gradients. 'Here we report the synthesis of well-crystallised, nearly pure HD by heating highly compressed graphite, which is applicable to both bulk and nanosized graphitic precursors,' scientists wrote. They found that this approach led to the formation of a millimetre-sized, highly structured block containing stacks of ultrasmall HD nanolayers. This 'super diamond' structure, according to scientists, exhibits high thermal stability 'up to 1,100C and a very high hardness of 155 Giga Pascals (GPa).' In comparison, natural diamonds have a hardness of around 100 GPa and a thermal stability up to around 700C. The material's high thermal stability and hardness 'suggest its great potential for industrial applications', scientists wrote in the study. They say the findings also provide a framework for graphite-to-diamond conversion under high pressure and temperature, further opening opportunities for fabricating the material to suit applications. 'Our findings offer valuable insights regarding the graphite-to-diamond conversion under elevated pressure and temperature, providing opportunities for the fabrication and applications of this unique material,' they wrote. However, this is not the first time a form of HD has been synthesised in a lab. A 2021 study led by scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the US also reported creating hexagonal diamonds, SCMP reported. They said the material could be a 'superior alternative' to conventional diamonds in widespread applications including in machining or drilling. Such hexagonal diamonds may also be fashioned into engagement rings, scientists said.
