#university of arizona
Researchers observe electrons zipping around in crystals
The end of the silicon age has begun. As computer chips approach the physical limits of miniaturization and power-hungry processors drive up energy costs, scientists are looking to a new crop of exotic materials that could foster a new generation of computing devices that promise to push performance to new heights while skimping on energy consumption.
Unlike current silicon-based electronics, which shed most of the energy they consume as waste heat, the future is all about low-power computing. Known as spintronics, this technology relies on a quantum physical property of electrons – up or down spin – to process and store information, rather than moving them around with electricity as conventional computing does.
On the quest to making spintronic devices a reality, scientists at the University of Arizona are studying an exotic crop of materials known as transition metal dichalcogenides, or TMDs. TMDs have exciting properties lending themselves to new ways of processing and storing information and could provide the basis of future transistors and photovoltaics – and potentially even offer an avenue toward quantum computing.
For example, current silicon-based solar cells convert realistically only about 25 percent of sunlight into electricity, so efficiency is an issue, says Calley Eads, a fifth-year doctoral student in the UA’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry who studies some of the properties of these new materials. “There could be a huge improvement there to harvest energy, and these materials could potentially do this,” she says.
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9. University of Arizona
It’s really a shame that we don’t have more historic wads of gum chewed by outlaws in our nation’s museums. At least (if you’re into that sort of thing) you can find some of John Dillinger’s gum in a jar in the School of Pharmacy.
Carly Hayes, Jessica Green, Ariana Guido & Louise Martines
University of Arizona
Gamma Phi Beta
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Taylor Aschenbrener, Lindsey Birchfield & Hollee Lieberman
University of Arizona
Kappa Kappa Gamma
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Platinum Prints
1990: Irving Penn: Platinum Test Material, Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona
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