The new superconducting materials can increase the conductivity by 10 times, which paves the way for the development of semiconductor free microelectronic devices

According to the latest issue of nature communication magazine, American engineers have made the first optical controlled microelectronic device without semiconductor A new superconducting material is used in the device When low voltage and low power laser are applied to activate the device, the conductivity can be increased by 10 times The discovery paves the way for the development of faster, more powerful semiconductor free microelectronics devices and more efficient solar panels The performance of existing transistors and other microelectronic devices will be limited by the material composition Semiconductors have band gaps, which means they need external energy to move electrons The speed of electron is limited, because the electron will constantly collide with atom when passing through the semiconductor, so the semiconductor will limit the conductivity or current of the device It is a very challenging work to release electrons from materials It needs to apply high-pressure laser of more than 100V, high-energy laser, or ultra-high temperature of more than 540 ℃, which can not be applied to micro and nano electronic devices A team led by Dan sevenpiper, a professor in the Department of electronic engineering at the University of California, San Diego, has found a new method to remove the electrical conductivity barrier and verified it at the micro scale The micro devices they made do not need the above extreme conditions to release electrons from the material The device consists of an engineered "Supersurface" composed of mushroom shaped gold nanostructures on a parallel gold strip array Superconducting materials (schematic diagram) this design enables the super surface to generate "hot spots" with high-intensity electric field when applying low-voltage and low-energy infrared light below 10V, thus providing enough energy to pull electrons out of the metal and release them The experimental results show that the conductivity of the device increases more than 10 times Although it can't completely replace all semiconductor devices, it's the best way for some very high frequency or power devices, the researchers said At present, the research team is exploring other applications of the technology in addition to electronics, so as to provide the possibility for the production of new photovoltaic devices.