Physicists have found a way to significant increase the efficiency in controlling data storage and programming logic functions in the two-dimensional semiconductor. The scientists have advanced the electron functions with valleytronics.
A team of scientists at the Buffalo University in New York, under a professor in the Department of Physics, Hao Zeng, Ph.D. is able to increase the efficiency of data transfer in the semiconductor using valleytronics. According to the University of Buffalo, Zeng has worked with the international scientist to discover the advancement of valleytronics for inventing the highly efficient computer chip.
Principally, the valleytronics is the field in physics that seek the usage of the degree of freedom in electron valley for data storage and programming logic. The valleys are the entire electron energies in the crystalline solid, which the ability to control the electrons will produce a super-efficient computer chip. Valleytronics deals with the new way to split the energy levels between the valleys in the 2D semiconductor.
In his discovery, Zeng has found the way to use a ferromagnetic compound to pull the valleys apart and keep them at the different energy levels. The result shows that the levels of valleytronics achieved with ferromagnetic are ten times more efficient that applying external magnetic field. Professor Zeng has published the research in the Nature Nanotechnology journal.
"Our new approach makes the valleys more accessible and easier to control," Professor Zeng said explaining his valleytronics approach. "This could allow valleys to be useful for future information storage and processing.”
The advancement of Valleytronics is expected to extend Moore's law. The law was invented by the co-founder of Intel, Gordon Moore following his observation in the amount of transistor in the integrated circuit of computers. He predicted in 1965, that the number of components per integrated circuit would always double every two years until the next decades.
Valleytronics extends Moore's law, as the number of components per integrated circuit remains the same, but the computer will run at much higher computing power. Watch the explanation of Moore's law by "Mythbusters" host in Discovery channel, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman below:
