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A single layer of tin -- an element familiar as the coating for tin cans -- could be the world's first material to conduct electricity with 100 percent efficiency at the temperatures that computer chips operate, according to a team led by researchers from the US Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University. If used as wiring in computer chips, the material, called "stanene," could increase the speed and lower the power needs of future generations of computers. Image Credit: Brad Plummer/SLAC.
Move over graphene, there’s a new 2D super material contender on the horizon – tin.
Though tin is not typically thought of as a glamorous element (predominantly due to its
association with canned food), a single layer of atoms of the element could hold promising electrical properties for computing applications.
The new material has been named ‘stanene’, and is created by the addition of fluorine atoms to a single layer of tin.
Stanene is part of a group of materials known as topological insulators, which have been of great interest to researchers of late due to their ability to conduct electricity with 100% efficiency. This remarkable property is only possible when the materials are just one atom thick, and occurs because electricity is conducted along the outside edges of the material, not through the middle.
The leader of the recent research on Stanene, Shoucheng Zhang, explains this phenomenon below in more detail.
"The magic of topological insulators is that by their very nature, they force electrons to move in defined lanes without any speed limit, like the German autobahn. As long as they're on the freeway – the edges or surfaces – the electrons will travel without resistance."
Unfortunately, the materials tested so far (which include mixtures of bismuth, antimony, selenium and tellurium) cannot achieve this 100% efficiency at room temperature.
However, recent calculations show that 2D tin could conduct electricity 100% efficiently at room temperature, and with the addition of fluorine to extend its operating range, this would be useable in standard computer chips.
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Adding fluorine atoms (yellow) to a single layer of tin atoms (gray) should allow a predicted new material, stanene, to conduct electricity perfectly along its edges (blue and red arrows) at temperatures up to 100 degrees Celsius. The first application for this stanene-fluorine combination could be in wiring that connects the many sections of a microprocessor, allowing electrons to flow as easily as cars on a freeway. Image Credit: Yong Xu/Tsinghua University; Greg Stewart/SLAC
This is of course a tantalizing prospect for anyone manufacturing computer chips, as this increased efficiency would lead to increased speed of chips at a reduced power. Some people even believe stanene could be the natural successor to silicon in electrical devices.
"Eventually, we can imagine stanene being used for many more circuit structures, including replacing silicon in the hearts of transistors. Someday we might even call this area Tin Valley rather than Silicon Valley." - Shoucheng Zhang
However, these properties are still yet to be experimentally tested and even after this, manufacturing challenges abound when attempting to bring this material to a commercial market.
For comparison the most famous 2D material in the world, graphene, is still yet to prove itself on an industrial scale even after years of research and testing.
However, great leaps are being made all the time with regards to the practicalities of using 2D materials in real-world applications. Perhaps both stanene and graphene, along with similar 2D materials, still have an important role to play in revolutionizing electronics and computing over the next decade.
Original source: DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
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