Semiconductors

They may be better known for stir-fries than supercomputing, but shiitake mushrooms have now been harnessed to function as living processors, storing and recalling data like a semiconductor chip but with almost no environmental footprint.

Graphene is the Novak Djokovic of materials – it’s so damn talented that it’s getting boring celebrating each new victory. But an exciting new upstart is challenging graphene’s title. Meet goldene, a 2D sheet of gold with its own strange properties.

Scientists have found that a “superatomic” material is the fastest and most efficient semiconductor ever. Taking advantage of a tortoise-and-hare mechanism, the new material can transport energy much faster than silicon.

Water is usually something you’d want to keep away from electronic circuits, but engineers in Germany have now developed a new concept for water-based switches that are much faster than current semiconductor materials.

For a few years scientists have predicted a fifth kind of phosphorus should be possible, but it had yet to be confirmed. Now, researchers in Germany have managed to show that blue phosphorus does exist, and mapped out its different properties.

A team of Chinese scientists has developed a new nanoparticle-based film that can store information as 3D holograms, improving data density, read and write speeds and stability in harsh conditions.

Researchers at the University of California San Diego claim to have created the world's first microelectronic device that has no semiconductors, instead employing low-power laser optical control to increase its conductivity by more than 1,000 percent.

They're not the first transistors created using carbon nanotubes (CNTs), but researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) claim their new carbon nanotube transistors are the first to outperform the best silicon transistors available today.

Scientists have used a form of liquid light to create a semiconductor switch that is so small that it not only blurs the distinction between light and electricity, but could also enable the development of much faster and smaller electronic components well into the future.

A breakthrough manufacturing method, using a technique known as nanoimprint lithography, has been devised that creates high-performance transistors with wireless capabilities on rolls of common, flexible plastic.

Researchers from Berkeley Lab and Columbia University claim to have created the highest-performing, single-molecule diode ever. Said to be 50 times better in performance and efficiency than anything previously produced, this device may pave the way for a range of powerful new nanoscale electronics.

Researchers from the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) in Spain claim to have created a graphene-based photodetector that converts light into electricity in under 50 quadrillionths of a second. This may give rise to a new range of super-efficient, ultrafast electronic components.