Communications of the ACM
Revolutionary New Solution for Semiconductor & Nano Materials
3D-transmission electron microscope images of hybrid Au-CdS core-shell nanostructures possessing monocrystalline CdS shell and various unequal Au core lattice structures.
Credit: University of Maryland
University of Maryland researchers have developed a new way to generate high quality semiconductor materials essential for advanced microelectronics and nanotechnology. The process employs chemical thermodynamics to produce, in solution, a broad spectrum of diverse combination materials, each with a shell of structurally perfect mono-crystal semiconductor surrounding a metal core. The technique offers numerous advantages over the epitaxial process for creating single crystal semiconductors and related devices, including the removal of a restriction on deposition semiconductor layer thickness and the elimination of an inflexible requirement for lattice matching.
"Our process should allow creation of materials that yield highly integrated multi-functional microelectronic components; better, more efficient materials for photovoltaic cells; and new biomarkers," says lead researcher and professor Min Ouyang.
He also says the non-epitaxial technique can be used to design and manufacture artificial quantum structures, which could yield insights into manipulating quantum information processing's physics at the nanoscale.
From University of Maryland
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Abstracts Copyright © 2010 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA 
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