electronic device – Lightsources.org

New simulation tool opens path to superfast electronic switches

2023/01/052023/01/16

Electronic devices operate at speeds limited by the physical processes underlying their operation: the faster the process, the quicker the information processing speed. One such fast process that might lead to the development of superfast magnetic switches is the demagnetisation of layered magnetic materials (multilayered ferromagnets) when hit by ultrafast X-ray laser pulses. This process has been poorly understood to date, but now a joint research project by European XFEL and the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IFJ PAN) has developed a new simulation tool, taking an important step towards superfast electronics.

“In recent years, physicists have become quite familiar with demagnetisation processes initiated by visible or near-infrared light. However, when it comes to the impact of more energetic X-ray radiation, we are all just taking the first steps,” says Beata Ziaja-Motyka, initiator of the research project. “Our team’s contribution lies in the construction of a theoretical model called XSPIN. With its help, it is possible for the first time to simulate demagnetisation in multilayered ferromagnetic materials exposed to femtosecond pulses of light from an X-ray laser.”

Read more on the European XFEL website

Image: A pulse of X-ray radiation hits a sample of material with magnetic properties, scatters and forms a diffraction ring. The diameter of the ring depends on the average distance between the magnetic domains, and its intensity is the greater, the stronger the magnetization of the sample.

Credit: FJ PAN

Giant Rashba semiconductors show unconventional dynamics with potential applications

2022/07/062022/07/15

Germanium telluride is a strong candidate for use in functional spintronic devices due to its giant Rashba-effect. Now, scientists at HZB have discovered another intriguing phenomenon in GeTe by studying the electronic response to thermal excitation of the samples. To their surprise, the subsequent relaxation proceeded fundamentally different to that of conventional semimetals. By delicately controlling the fine details of the underlying electronic structure, new functionalities of this class of materials could be conceived.

In recent decades, the complexity and functionality of silicon-based technologies has increased exponentially, commensurate with the ever-growing demand for smaller, more capable devices. However, the silicon age is coming to an end. With increasing miniaturisation, undesirable quantum effects and thermal losses are becoming an ever-greater obstacle. Further progress requires new materials that harness quantum effects rather than avoid them. Spintronic devices, which use spins of electrons rather than their charge, promise more energy efficient devices with significantly enhanced switching times and with entirely new functionalities.

Spintronic devices are coming

Candidates for spintronic devices are semiconductor materials wherein the spins are coupled with the orbital motion of the electrons. This so-called Rashba effect occurs in a number of non-magnetic semiconductors and semi-metallic compounds and allows, among other things, to manipulate the spins in the material by an electric field.

First study in a non equilibrium state

Germanium telluride hosts one of the largest Rashba effects of all semiconducting systems. Until now, however, germanium telluride has only been studied in thermal equilibrium. Now, for the first time, a team led by HZB physicist Jaime-Sanchez-Barriga has specifically accessed a non-equilibrium state in GeTe samples at BESSY II and investigated in detail how equilibrium is restored in the material on ultrafast (<10^-12 seconds) timescales. In the process, the physicists encountered a new and unexpected phenomenon.

First, the sample was excited with an infrared pulse and then measured with high time resolution using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (tr-ARPES). “For the first time, we were able to observe and characterise all phases of excitation, thermalisation and relaxation on ultrashort time scales,” says Sánchez-Barriga. The most important result: “The data show that the thermal equilibrium between the system of electrons and the crystal lattice is restored in a highly unconventional and counterintuitive way”, explains one of the lead authors, Oliver Clark.

Read more on the HZB website

Image: Left: Electronic structure of GeTe taken with 11 eV photons at BESSY-II, showing the band dispersions of bulk (BS) and surface Rashba states (SS1, SS2) in equilibrium. Middle: Zoom-in on the region of the Rashba states measured with fs-laser 6 eV photons. Right: Corresponding out-of-equilibrium dispersions following excitation by the pump pulse.

Astonishing diversity: Semiconductor nanoparticles form numerous structures

2021/08/052021/08/19

X-ray study reveals how lead sulphide particles self-organise in real time

The structure adopted by lead sulphide nanoparticles changes surprisingly often as they assemble to form ordered superlattices. This is revealed by an experimental study at PETRA III. A team led by the DESY scientists Irina Lokteva and Felix Lehmkühler, from the Coherent X-ray Scattering group headed by Gerhard Grübel, has observed the self-organisation of these semiconductor nanoparticles in real time. The results have been published in the journal Chemistry of Materials. The study helps to better understand the self-assembly of nanoparticles, which can lead to significantly different structures.

Among other things, lead sulphide nanoparticles are used in photovoltaic cells, light-emitting diodes and other electronic devices. In the study, the team investigated the way in which the particles self-organise to form a highly ordered film. They did so by placing a drop of liquid (25 millionths of a litre) containing the nanoparticles inside a small cell and allowing the solvent to evaporate slowly over the course of two hours. The scientists then used an X-ray beam at the P10 beamline to observe in real time what structure the particles formed during the assembly.

To their surprise, the structure adopted by the particles changed several times during the process. “First we see the nanoparticles forming a hexagonal symmetry, which leads to a nanoparticle solid having a hexagonal lattice structure,” Lokteva reports. “But then the superlattice suddenly changes, and displays a cubic symmetry. As it continues to dry, the structure makes two more transitions, becoming a superlattice with tetragonal symmetry and finally one with a different cubic symmetry.” This sequence has been never revealed before in such detail.

Read more on the DESY website

Image: The lead sulphide nanoparticles, which are about eight nanometres (millionths of a millimetre) in size, initially arrange themselves into a layer with hexagonal symmetry

Credit: (Credit: University of Hamburg, Stefan Werner)

Unusual electronic properties taking shape

2021/06/132021/06/29

In a recent study, an international team led by researchers from The Pennsylvania State University in the US investigated the one-dimensional (1D) material tantalum selenide iodide (TaSe₄ )₂I. Its electronic properties had been theoretically predicted but not observed experimentally before the study conducted at the Bloch beamline. Evaporating iodine atoms turn out to drive unforeseen electronic changes.

Materials with unusual electronic properties such as charge density waves or topological states push the understanding of the fundamentals of quantum matter. They are also exciting candidates for the next generations of energy-efficient electronic and spintronic devices.

In the present study, the researchers found that the electronic properties of (TaSe₄ )₂I were different from the theoretical prediction. The band structure of a material can loosely be compared to a map of the material’s electronic properties. (TaSe₄ )₂I has something called Dirac bands, which is often found in this type of materials. The prediction said that the Dirac bands would split due to Weyl physics, which is not the case. The bands split with temperature, and the driver behind it is iodine atoms evaporating from the material’s surface.

Read more on the MAX IV website

Image: Surface charge induced Dirac band splitting in 1D material (TaSe₄ )₂I

Artificial spin ice toggles twist in X-ray beams on demand

2021/05/242021/05/28

SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENT

Advanced Light Source (ALS) studies helped scientists understand how a nanoscale magnetic lattice (an artifical spin ice) acts as a toggle switch for x-ray beams with spiral character.

SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT

The findings represent an important step toward the development of a versatile new tool for probing or controlling exotic phenomena in electronic and magnetic systems.

A curious singularity

Artificial spin ices (ASIs) are engineered arrays of nanomagnets that are often “frustrated,” meaning that the magnets, constrained by geometry, cannot align themselves to minimize their interaction energy. Water ice exhibits a similar property with regard to the positioning of hydrogen atoms.

While studying ASIs, a collaboration between scientists from the University of Kentucky and the ALS (see related feature article) made an interesting observation: light scattered from certain ASIs produced diffraction patterns in which spots of constructive interference were shaped like donuts instead of dots. The donuts were indicative of a phase singularity—a hallmark of light with a property known as orbital angular momentum (OAM).

Read more on the ALS website

Image: When x-rays are scattered from a patterned array of nanoscale magnets with a lattice defect, the beams acquire a spiral character (orbital angular momentum, or OAM) that produces diffraction patterns with donut-shaped spots. Researchers have found that these OAM beams can be switched on and off by adjusting the temperature or applying an external magnetic field.

Longer-lasting cell phone batteries

2020/08/172020/08/18

Studies demonstrate the promise of phosphorene in electronics

Phosphorene is attracting a lot of attention lately in the energy and electronics industries, and for good reason. The theoretical capacity of the two-dimensional material—which consists of a single layer of black phosphorus—is almost seven times that of anode materials currently used in lithium-ion batteries. That could translate into real-world benefits such as significantly greater range for electric vehicles and longer battery life for cell phones.

There are a couple of strikes against phosphorene though. Commercially available black phosphorus is costly, at roughly $1000 per gram, and it breaks down quickly when it’s exposed to air. Researchers from Western University teamed up with scientists from the Canadian Light Source (CLS) at the University of Saskatchewan on a pair of studies to determine if they could address both issues.

Read more on the Canadian Light Source website

Image: Dr. Andy Sun at the Canadian Light Source.

Enhancing Materials for Hi-Res Patterning to Advance Microelectronics

2019/08/272019/08/28

Scientists at Brookhaven Lab’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials created “hybrid” organic-inorganic materials for transferring ultrasmall, high-aspect-ratio features into silicon for next-generation electronic devices.

To increase the processing speed and reduce the power consumption of electronic devices, the microelectronics industry continues to push for smaller and smaller feature sizes. Transistors in today’s cell phones are typically 10 nanometers (nm) across—equivalent to about 50 silicon atoms wide—or smaller. Scaling transistors down below these dimensions with higher accuracy requires advanced materials for lithography—the primary technique for printing electrical circuit elements on silicon wafers to manufacture electronic chips. One challenge is developing robust “resists,” or materials that are used as templates for transferring circuit patterns into device-useful substrates such as silicon.

Image: (Left to right) Ashwanth Subramanian, Ming Lu, Kim Kisslinger, Chang-Yong Nam, and Nikhil Tiwale in the Electron Microscopy Facility at Brookhaven Lab’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials. The scientists used scanning electron microscopes to image high-resolution, high-aspect-ratio silicon nanostructures they etched using a “hybrid” organic-inorganic resist.

Tuning material properties with laser light

2019/07/262019/08/01

The research results suggest the possibility of creating microelectronic devices that use a laser beam to erase and rewrite bits of information in materials engineered for random-access memory and data storage.

Many semiconductor-based devices use electric currents to control and manipulate bits of information encoded into tiny magnetic domains. However, this approach is reaching the physical limits of thermally stable feature sizes, and scientists are actively searching for the next generation of materials and processes that could lead to smaller, faster, more powerful devices.
One possible path forward has been opened up by the emergence of materials that can be engineered, layer by layer, to theoretical specifications. Multiferroics, for example, are designed materials with technologically useful properties that can be controlled by external fields. While many studies have been performed on the effects of electric and magnetic fields on multiferroics, very few studies have explored the use of optical modulation (i.e., laser light) as a way to tune magnetic and electronic ordering in such materials.

Images: They are taken at the same illuminated region using PFM, PEEM with linearly polarized x-rays, and PEEM with circularly polarized x-rays. The strong black and white contrast in the linear dichroism image indicates the antiferromagnetic order; the red/blue contrast in the circular dichroism image shows the existence of ferromagnetic moments that lie parallel/antiparallel to the incident x-rays, respectively.

Towards upscaling the production of graphene nanoribbons for electronics

2019/01/202019/01/23

Two-dimensional sheets of graphene in the form of ribbons a few tens of nanometers across have unique properties that are highly interesting for use in future electronics.

Researchers have now for the first time fully characterised nanoribbons grown in both the two possible configurations on the same wafer with a clear route towards upscaling the production.
Graphene in the form of nanoribbons show so called ballistic transport, which means that the material does not heat up when a current flow through it. This opens up an interesting path towards high speed, low power nanoelectronics. The nanoribbon form may also let graphene behave more like a semiconductor, which is the type of material found in transistors and diodes. The properties of graphene nanoribbons are closely related to the precise structure of the edges of the ribbon. Also, the symmetry of the graphene structure lets the edges take two different configurations, so called zigzag and armchair, depending on the direction of the long respective short edge of the ribbon.

See some video interviews and the entire article on the MAX IV website

Finding unusual performance in unconventional battery materials

2018/10/152018/10/18

Even as our electronic devices become ever more sophisticated and versatile, battery technology remains a stubborn bottleneck, preventing the full realization of promising applications such as electric vehicles and power-grid solar energy storage. Among the limitations of current materials are poor ionic and electron transport qualities. While strategies exist to improve these properties, and hence reduce charging times and enhance storage capacity, they are often expensive, difficult to implement on a large scale, and of only limited effectiveness. An alternative solution is the search for new materials with the desired atomic structures and characteristics. This is the strategy of a group of researchers who, utilizing ultra-bright x-rays from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source (APS), identified and characterized two niobium tungsten oxide materials that demonstrate much faster charging rates and power output than conventional lithium electrodes. Their work appeared in the journal Nature.

Currently, the usual approach for wringing extra capacity and performance from lithium-ion batteries involves the creation of electrode materials with nanoscale structures, which reduces the diffusion distances for lithium ions. However, this also tends to increase the practical volume of the material and can introduce unwanted additional chemical reactions. Further, when graphite electrodes are pushed to achieve high charging rates, irregular dendrites of lithium can form and grow, leading to short circuits, overheating, and even fires. Measures to prevent these dendrites generally cause a decrease in energy density. These issues seriously limit the use of graphite electrodes for high-rate applications.

Image: Artist’s impression of rapidly flowing lithium through the niobium tungsten oxide structure. This is a detail of the image, please see here for the entire art work.
Credit: Ella Maru Studio

Brookhaven Lab scientist receives Early Career Research Program Funding

2018/06/212018/07/04

Valentina Bisogni, an associate physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, has been selected by DOE’s Office of Science to receive significant research funding as part of DOE’s Early Career Research Program.

The effort, now in its ninth year, is designed to bolster the nation’s scientific workforce by providing support to exceptional researchers during the crucial early career years, when many scientists do their most formative work. Bisogni is among a total of 84 recipients selected this year after a competitive review of proposals. Thirty winners come from DOE national laboratories and 54 from U.S. universities.

“Supporting talented researchers early in their career is key to building and maintaining a skilled and effective scientific workforce for the nation. By investing in the next generation of scientific researchers, we are supporting lifelong discovery science to fuel the nation’s innovation system,” said Secretary of Energy Rick Perry. “We are proud of the accomplishments these young scientists have already made, and look forward to following their achievements in years to come.”

Each researcher will receive a grant of up to $2.5 million over five years to cover their salary and research expenses. A list of the 84 awardees, their institutions, and titles of their research projects is available on DOE’s Early Career Research Program webpage.

Image: Valentina Bisogni is shown preparing samples at NSLS-II’s Soft Inelastic X-ray Scattering beamline, where she will conduct her research funded through DOE’s Early Career Research Program.

Insulator metal transition at the nanoscale

2018/06/112018/06/11

An international team of researchers has been able to probe the insulator-conductor phase transition of materials at the nanoscale resolution. This is one of the first results of MaReS endstation of BOREAS beamline.

Controlling the flow of electrons within circuits is how electronic devices work. This is achieved through the appropriate choice of materials. Metals allow electrons to flow freely and insulators prevent conduction. In general, the electrical properties of a material are determined when the material is fabricated and cannot be changed afterwards without changing the material. However, there are materials that can exhibit metal or insulator behaviour depending on their temperature. Being able switch their properties, these materials could lead to a new generation of electronic devices.

Vanadium Dioxide (VO₂) is one such material. It can switch from an insulating phase to a metallic phase just above room temperature, a feature exploited already for sensors. However, the reason why the properties of this material change so dramatically has been a matter of scientific debate for over 50 years.

One of the challenges in understanding why and how this switch occurs is due to a process called phase separation. The insulator-metal phase transition is similar to the ice to liquid transition in water. When ice melts, both liquid and solid water can coexist in separate regions. Similarly, in VO₂, insulating and metallic regions of the material can be coexisting at the same time during the transition. But unlike water, where the different regions are often large enough to see with the naked eye, in VO₂this separation occurs on the nanoscale and it is thus challenging to observe. As a result, it has been hard to know if the true properties of each phase, or the mixture of both phases, are being measured.

Image: (extract, original here) reconstructed holograms at the vanadium and oxygen edges (518, 529, and 530.5 eV) used to encode the intensities of the three color channels of an RGB (red, green, blue) image. At 330 K, an increase in intensity of the green channel, which probes the metallic rutile phase (R) through the d∥ state, is observed in small regions. As the sample is heated further, it becomes increasingly clear that the blue channel, which probes a intermediate insulating M2 phase, also changes but in different regions. At 334 K, three distinct regions can be observed corresponding to the insulating monoclinic M1, M2, and metallic R phases. As the temperature increases, the R phase dominates. The circular field of view is 2 μm in diameter. (taken from Vidas et al, Nanoletters, 2018).

Scientists find ordered magnetic patterns in disordered magnetic material

2018/06/082018/06/11

Study led by Berkeley Lab scientists relies on high-resolution microscopy techniques to confirm nanoscale magnetic features.

A team of scientists working at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has confirmed a special property known as “chirality” – which potentially could be exploited to transmit and store data in a new way – in nanometers-thick samples of multilayer materials that have a disordered structure.

While most electronic devices rely on the flow of electrons’ charge, the scientific community is feverishly searching for new ways to revolutionize electronics by designing materials and methods to control other inherent electron traits, such as their orbits around atoms and their spin, which can be thought of as a compass needle tuned to face in different directions.

These properties, scientists hope, can enable faster, smaller, and more reliable data storage by facilitating spintronics – one facet of which is the use of spin current to manipulate domains and domain walls. Spintronics-driven devices could generate less heat and require less power than conventional devices.

In the latest study, detailed in the May 23 online edition of the journal Advanced Materials, scientists working at Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry and Advanced Light Source (ALS) confirmed a chirality, or handedness, in the transition regions – called domain walls – between neighboring magnetic domains that have opposite spins.

Scientists hope to control chirality – analogous to right-handedness or left-handedness – to control magnetic domains and convey zeros and ones as in conventional computer memory.

Image: (extract, here original image)The top row shows electron phase, the second row shows magnetic induction, and the bottom row shows schematics for the simulated phase of different magnetic domain features in multilayer material samples. The first column is for a symmetric thin-film material and the second column is for an asymmetric thin film containing gadolinium and cobalt. The scale bars are 200 nanometers (billionths of a meter). The dashed lines indicate domain walls and the arrows indicate the chirality or “handedness.” The underlying images in the top two rows were producing using a technique at Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry known as Lorentz microscopy.
Credit: Berkeley Lab

Topological insulator gap in graphene contacted with Pb

2017/12/112018/01/17

Up to now the proposed modifications do not allow to introduce graphene to existing electronic devices.

Graphene is the most promising two dimensional material for nanoelectronic applications featuring the relativistic-like electronic spectrum. Contact of graphene with various materials and its functionalization allows to manipulate the electronic structure, e.g. to change the conductivity type and band gap creation. The latter is of great interest due to the requirements for graphene transistor realisation. Furthermore, graphene contact with heavy/magnetic metals results in the lifting of the spin degeneracy of the Dirac cone, opening the spintronics field for its applications. However, up to now the proposed modifications do not allow to introduce graphene to existing electronic devices.

>Read more on the Elettra website.

Image: a) Sketch of the studied system, the Pb atoms presented by yellow spheres; b) ARPES image of graphene/Pb/Pt(111) in the region of K point, taken as a sum of two spectra with p-and s-polarization of light; c) schematic spin structure of the graphene states in the case of large “intrinsic” spin-orbit interaction d) ARPES mapping of the system in two orthogonal k-directions near the K point of graphene.