'Surprising' hidden activity of semiconductor material spotted by researchers

Using advanced imaging techniques, an international team found that the material that a semiconductor chip device is built on, called the substrate, responds to changes in electricity much like the semiconductor on top of it.

"New ideas are needed for smaller and faster electronics in order to keep up with Moore's law," said Gopalan, the corresponding author of the study in."One idea being pursued is materials, such as vanadium dioxide, that can switch between metal -- the one state -- and insulator -- the zero state -- states in a trillionth of a second. This is known as undergoing metal-insulator transitions.

"The underlying physics of this material is less understood, and its performance in a device geometry is even lesser understood," Gopalan said."If we can make them work, there will be a renaissance in electronics. In particular, neuromorphic computing -- where computer systems that take inspiration from the brains of living systems with neurons -- could seriously benefit by using such devices.

The APS X-ray penetrated through the vanadium dioxide film and into the titanium dioxide substrate -- which is normally considered an electrically and mechanically passive material -- that the thin film was grown on. "These neutral oxygen vacancies hold a charge of two electrons, which they can release when the material switches from an insulator to a metal," Gopalan said."The oxygen vacancy left behind is now charged and swells up, leading to the observed surprising swelling in the device. This can also happen in the substrate.

The collaboration enabled both a significant amount of progress to happen in a short period of time and work to be done in a shorter period of time, and brought in a variety of perspectives from multiple disciplines.

Electronics Spintronics Physics Spintronics Research Computer Science Computer Modeling Mobile Computing

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