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Chinese scientists have discovered what is, to date, the “best semiconductor material.”
Release Time:
Jul 26,2022
7 Month 22 On that day, a research team from MIT in the United States, the University of Houston, and other institutions discovered a substance called… “ Cubic boron arsenide ” The material breaks through these two limitations: it not only offers high mobility for both electrons and holes, but also boasts excellent conductivity while exhibiting exceptionally high thermal conductivity.
Scientists say this is the best semiconductor material discovered to date—and it may well remain the best in the future. The relevant findings have been published in the latest issue of Science, with several Chinese researchers listed as authors, including Gang Chen, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, and Zhifeng Ren (University of Houston), among others.
Of course, so far, cubic boron arsenide can only be produced and tested on a small scale in the laboratory—and it remains uneven. We still need to do more work to determine whether cubic boron arsenide can be manufactured in a practical, cost‑effective manner. At present, there’s still a long way to go before it can replace silicon, which is ubiquitous on Earth. However, researchers say that even in the near future, this material may find some applications that leverage its unique properties to make a significant impact.
This work experimentally confirmed that Chen Gang’s team in… 2018 A prediction made in that year has been verified through analysis: Cubic boron arsenide also exhibits very high electron and hole mobility. “ This is what truly makes this material unique. ” He stated.
They also demonstrated that this material possesses an exceptionally wide band gap (the energy difference between the top of the valence band and the bottom of the conduction band in semiconductors or insulators), a characteristic that endows it with tremendous potential as a semiconductor material.
This new work confirms that boron arsenide boasts high electron and hole mobility, possessing all the key properties required for an ideal semiconductor. “ This is important because, in today’s semiconductors, we have both positive and negative charges present simultaneously. Therefore, if you want to manufacture a chip, you need a material that offers low resistance to both electrons and holes. ” Chen Gang stated.
According to reports, silicon—currently the most widely used material—boasts excellent electron mobility but relatively poor hole mobility. Meanwhile, other materials, such as gallium arsenide—which is extensively used in lasers—also exhibit good electron mobility, but they do not offer comparable hole mobility.
“ Heat is now a major bottleneck for many electronic products. ” The primary author of the paper Shin It is said that, “ Silicon carbide is gaining favor across the major electric vehicle industry, including from Tesla, because although its electron mobility is relatively low, its thermal conductivity is three times that of silicon. Just imagine what could be achieved with boron arsenide, which boasts thermal conductivity and electron mobility that both exceed those of silicon! 10 Twice as much. That’s enough to change the game. ”
The electronic properties of cubic boron arsenide were initially predicted based on quantum mechanical density functional calculations conducted by Gang Chen’s team; these predictions have now been verified through… MIT The conducted experiment was verified, and it employed optical detection methods to analyze the samples fabricated by them and the members of the University of Houston team.
Researchers say that this material not only boasts the highest thermal conductivity among all semiconductors, but it can even rank third in thermal conductivity among all materials. — It ranks second only to diamond and isotopically enriched cubic boron nitride. “ Now, we have also predicted the quantum mechanical behavior of electrons and holes from first principles, which has been proven to be correct. ”。
“ This is impressive, because aside from graphene, I actually don’t know of any other material that possesses all of these properties. ” He said. “ This is a bulk material that possesses these characteristics. ”
Of course, Chen Gang also emphasized that although its thermal and electrical properties have both been proven to be exceptionally outstanding, many other properties of this material still need to be tested, such as its long‑term stability.
He added that, “ This may be extremely important—people have never really paid attention to this material before. ” Now, the ideal properties of boron arsenide have become clearer, indicating that this material… “ It is the best semiconductor in many respects. ” .( Source of the article SEMI China IT Home , Editor: Corporate Administration Department )
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