Recently-predicted and much-sought, the material allows electrons on its surface to travel with no loss of energy at room temperatures and can be fabricated using existing semiconductor technologies. Such material could provide a leap in microchip speeds, and even become the bedrock of an entirely new kind of computing industry based on spintronics, the next evolution of electronics.More info at Science Daily.
Physicists Yulin Chen, Zhi-Xun Shen and their colleagues tested the behavior of electrons in the compound bismuth telluride. The results, published online June 11 in Science Express, show a clear signature of what is called a topological insulator, a material that enables the free flow of electrons across its surface with no loss of energy.
Exotic material could revolutionize computer industry
Posted on Sunday, June 21 2009 @ 8:16 CEST by Thomas De MaesschalckResearchers at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University confirmed the existence of a type of material that could one day lead to dramatically faster, and more efficient computer chips:
