New conducting sheets hint at smaller electronics

Smaller electronic devices could be possible after scientists discover a new way to create extremely thin and reconfigurable electrical conducting sheets.

As the demand for more powerful, smaller technology grows, the tiniest devices are now composed of just a few atoms. As a result, it will become impossible to make these devices any smaller – we will simply run out of space. One solution developed by a team at Queen’s University Belfast is to make electronic circuits more 'flexible' so that they can exist at one moment for one purpose, but can be completely reconfigured the next moment for another purpose.

To do this they developed unique 2D sheets – almost as thin as graphene – within crystalline materials. These sheets are able to act in ways that graphene cannot – appearing, moving and disappearing inside the crystal without permanently altering its structure. It is this property which the researchers say can be used as reconfigurable electronic circuits.

Professor Marty Gregg, from Queen’s University Belfast, and co-author of the study, said: “Our research suggests the possibility to "etch-a-sketch" nanoscale electrical connections, where patterns of electrically conducting wires can be drawn and then wiped away again as often as required. In this way, complete electronic circuits could be created and then dynamically reconfigured when needed to carry out a different role, overturning the paradigm that electronic circuits need be fixed components of hardware, typically designed with a dedicated purpose in mind."

To be effective the team not only needed to create 2D sheets which conduct electricity, they also needed to tune exactly when and where they appear. Dr Raymond McQuaid, from Queen’s University, said: “The key is that, when a needle is pressed into the crystal surface, a jigsaw puzzle-like pattern of structural variants, called "domains", develops around the contact point. The different pieces of the pattern fit together in a unique way with the result that the conducting walls are found along certain boundaries where they meet.

“We have also shown that these walls can then be moved using applied electric fields, therefore suggesting compatibility with more conventional voltage operated devices.”

The study was published in Nature Communications.