The research in these fields is very important to most of us. Digital gadgets are dependent on it.
Semiconductors are used in all micro electronic devices. These are materials that are not very strong. Adding tiny amounts of other substances to them can be done with the help of the dop. The Semiconductor is not so bad because of this improvement.
The electrical properties of the material were changed when we doped it with semiconductors.
It's all good. It's nice when things work out. We don't know a lot of why it works. At the atomic level, this is true as well.
Previously, it was almost impossible to find the individual added atoms. This will allow us to understand how they affect the material's properties.
It's also important to know why.
What do you think? We should care about single atoms and why they work. It's good to know that it works. Physicists and chemists would enjoy doing the research, but the rest of us wouldn't benefit from it.
Dennis Meier says that only when you know more about how something works can you modify it. He is a professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the university.
You can make more efficient, eco-friendly, or cheaper materials if you use this method. You could assign new properties to a material that you already have. Future materials for sustainable technology can be developed with this in mind.
We often want to add new functions to materials. We need to know what role each atom has.
It is possible because of advanced images.
In a recent article in Nature Communications, Hunnestad and colleagues present the results of many, many hours of work.
An advanced piece of cutting-edge equipment was acquired by NTNU. The machine can give a three-dimensional representation of a material at the atomic level. He is an engineer in the lab.
Hunnestad and colleagues were able to study a new type of oxide-based Semiconductor with very small amounts of a substance added to tailor its properties.
Conventional microscopy techniques didn't allow us to observe how small amounts of Additives positioned themselves in Semiconductor. The new results show that the investment in the very best technical equipment, such as this APT machine, pays off a lot.
The potential is shown.
The research is hard to do. The team has found solutions thanks to bringing together colleagues with different experimental and theoretical background.
This isn't just a great accomplishment. It shows the huge potential of the technique for research fields that have never used it before. It shows the unique opportunities we have because of the modern infrastructure in the TEM Gemini Center.
Hunnestad has been with the company for a while. He has been supported by two other people. The experts in high-resolution electron microscopy are both professors at the Department of Physics at NTNU.
The fascinating possibilities that have already emerged from their research and the novel perspectives for the characterization of functional materials at the atomic scale are something that Hunnestad and Meier are excited about.
Titanium atoms are mixed into a Semiconductor.
The research group looked at the oxide-based Semiconductor Er(Mn,Ti)O 3. They collaborated with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the U.S. to add titanium to erbium.
The atom probe can give us a three-dimensional representation of how the titanium atoms are positioned. The new electrical properties of the material can be linked to individual atoms.
A professor at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at NTNU is leading the team. Experiments were supplemented with calculations. The calculations show how individual atoms can affect the physical properties.
The method the researchers have used can be used on many other substances. The research team at NTNU has been experimenting with a lot of different things.
The results are of interest. They can help us understand oxide-based materials in a broader way. New doors are opened by the research.
Research is strengthened by a cooperative approach.
The breakthrough was made possible by many people from different departments at the university. The work was supported by the Research Council of Norway, the Norwegian Micro- andNano-Fabrication Facility, the Norwegian Laboratory for Mineral and Materials Characterization, and the Norwegian Center for Transmission Electron Microscopy.
The researchers say that the effort shows the strength of interdisciplinary research. A solid start-of-the-art infrastructure can show what can be done.
The details of how Hunnestad did so well are hard to understand for most of us. If you want to read more about the research article, you can click on the link below.
More information: K. A. Hunnestad et al, Atomic-scale 3D imaging of individual dopant atoms in an oxide semiconductor, Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-32189-0 Journal information: Nature Communications
All Rights Reserved © 2024
