A new method of changing electronic states on demand could make electronics 1,000 times faster and more efficient, researchers say.
In a new study published 27 June in the journal Nature Physics, scientists discovered that controlled heating and cooling of a quantum material allows it to both insulate from and conduct electricity, depending on the temperature.
This material, named 1T-TaS₂, could potentially replace conventional silicon components in electronics, including laptops and smartphones. Quantum materials could accomplish the same tasks faster while taking up exponentially less room, the research team suggested.
If materials like 1T-TaS₂ were adopted for use in electronics, the amount of information they could process in a second would increase 1000-fold. "Processors work in gigahertz right now. The speed of change that this would enable would allow you to go to terahertz," Alberto de la Torre, a material physicist at Northeastern University and lead author of the study, said in a statement.
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