It is a material called Re6Se8Cl2 and, according to researchers at Columbia University, United States, it is the fastest and most efficient semiconductor to date. The discovery, the result of a coincidence, is published in the journal Science.

“In terms of energy transport, Re6Se8Cl2 is the best semiconductor we know of, at least so far,” says researcher Milan Delor.

Columbia University explains that when doctoral student Jack Tulyag first brought Re6Se8Cl2 to Delor’s lab, he did so not to search for a new and improved semiconductor, but to test the resolution of microscopes with a material that, in principle, , I shouldn’t have driven much of anything.

“It was the opposite of what we expected,” says Delor. “Instead of the slow movement we expected, we saw the fastest thing we’ve ever seen.”

The discovery could help overcome the shortcomings of semiconductors, scientists say.

Semiconductors have their limitations. The atomic structure of any material vibrates, creating quantum particles called phonons.

In turn, phonons cause the particles – electrons or excitons – that transport energy and information through electronic devices to disperse in a matter of nanometers and femtoseconds.

This means that energy is lost in the form of heat and that the transfer of information has a speed limit, which is why better options are sought.

And one of them is this material called Re6Se8Cl2. In their case, instead of scattering when they come into contact with the phonons, the excitons bind to them to create new quasiparticles called acoustic exciton-polarons.

These new quasiparticles in Re6Se8Cl2 have a special property: they are capable of flowing ballistically or without dispersion. This could one day translate into faster, more efficient devices, the researchers conclude.

In the experiments carried out by the team, these quasiparticles moved quickly – twice as fast as electrons in silicon – and crossed several microns of the sample in less than a nanosecond.

According to the then24