A new technology allows electrons to travel without resistance at room temperature, using a process called ballistic transport. The new technology uses graphene nanoribbons to direct the travel of electrons. This new system increases the theoretical conduction limits for the material by a factor of ten. This could usher in a new age of electronics.
Graphene nanoribbons are grown on a silicon wafer. When electrons travel along the nanoribbons, they have such a great deal of mobility, they act like photons in a fiber optic cable.
One of the disadvantages to graphene has been its inability to effectively stop electrons. This lack of a band gap has, so far, hindered its use in electronics. Some engineers are fighting the inherent properties of graphene, attempting to make the material behave more like silicon. Other developers are looking to harness the high electron mobility of graphene. Samsung has recently proposed developing a new generation of switches based on this property.
Researchers made the discovery accidentally, as they were working, attaching nanoribbons to silicon wafers. They were surprised to find the combination allowed electrons to flow freely along the edges of the ribbon.
"This work shows that we can control graphene electrons in very different ways because the properties are really exceptional. This could result in a new class of coherent electronic devices based on room temperature ballistic transport in graphene. Such devices would be very different from what we make today in silicon," Walt de Heer of the Georgia Institute of Technology said.
Nanoribbons were explored as a possible method of creating a band gap in the material. The new design grows the miniature structures on etched silicon wafers, heated to over 1800 degrees Fahrenheit.
By avoiding a band gap, designers could develop a new generation of super-fast computers. Electrons would be able to travel without scattering like they do using current technology. This would require the design of a new type of electronic switch to store and process information.
"We are already able to steer these electrons and we can switch them using rudimentary means. We can put a roadblock, and then open it up again. New kinds of switches for this material are now on the horizon," De Heer said, in a press release.
The research was funded, in part, by the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, and the Embassy of France, through a partner University grant.
Graphene can't be counted out of the future of the computer industry just yet.
