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Published Thursday, April 8, 2021
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Such see-through devices could potentially be integrated in glass, in flexible displays and in smart contact lenses, bringing to life futuristic devices that seem like the product of science fiction.
A new study developed in the Australian ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies, out this week, could pave the way to revolutionary transparent electronics.
For several decades, researchers have sought a new class of electronics based on semiconducting oxides, whose optical transparency could enable these fully-transparent electronics.
Oxide-based devices could also find use in power electronics and communication technology, reducing the carbon footprint of our utility networks.
A team led by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, RMIT, has now introduced ultrathin beta-tellurite to the two-dimensional, 2D, semiconducting material family, providing an answer to this decades-long search for a high mobility p-type oxide.
"This new, high-mobility p-type oxide fills a crucial gap in the materials spectrum to enable fast, transparent circuits," team leader Torben Daeneke said.
Other key advantages of the long-sought-after oxide-based semiconductors are their stability in air, less-stringent purity requirements, low costs and easy deposition.
"In our advances, the missing link was finding the right, 'positive' approach," Daeneke said.
There are two types of semiconducting materials. 'N-type' materials have abundant negatively-charged electrons, while 'p-type' semiconductors possess plenty of positively-charged holes.
It's the stacking together of complementary n-type and p-type materials that allows electronic devices such as diodes, rectifiers and logic circuits.
Modern life is critically reliant on these materials since they are the building blocks of every computer and smartphone.
A barrier to oxide devices has been that while many high-performance n-type oxides are known, there is a significant lack of high-quality p-type oxides.
The team plans to further explore the potential of this novel semiconductor. "Our further investigations of this exciting material will explore integration in existing and next-generation consumer electronics," Daeneke said.
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How can this discovery be used to reduce the current electronics contamination? We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com
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