One factor limiting the scaling and
reproducibility of device elements in computer processors is the random
distribution of dopants in semiconductor nanostructures. To overcome this
obstacle for faster computing, new ways to position and address individual
dopants are needed. Proposals for next-generation computing based on quantum
variables such as electron spin also require the ability to address and control
interactions between individual atoms.
Scientists researching electronic
devices that promise to extend current technologies beyond the ITRS roadmap –
the industry generated timeline for the development of silicon-based
electronics – have for some time focused on the potential for the field of “spintronics”
to deliver fast, low-power computing. However, progress in the area of computer
When an object, such as a colloidal particle, is put into a liquid crystal, it alters the otherwise uniform orientation of the molecules, creating a field of orientational disturbance around itself. This field acts on the object to align it with particular orientation relative to the average liquid crystal direction, indicated by the arrows in the image.
LCMRC researchers have created a new family of electrolytes that promise to revolutionalize Lithium ion battery technology. Electrolytes are the electrically conducting media in batteries. Good ones carry high current density without chemical degradation and maintain their desirable characteristics over many charging and discharging cycles.
Center researchers are collaborating with spin-off Displaytech to develop FLC materials for application in picoprojectors. The high quality time sequential color and high brightness enabled by FLC switching speed makes FLC-on-silicon an excellent display technology for picoprojectors, currently being marketed by 3M.
Liquid crystals that realign in response to DNA can reveal subtle sequence alterations, even a single base mutation. Center investigator Dan Schwartz.and doctoral student Andrew Price showed that nematic liquid crystals, which naturally align themselves perpendicular to the surface of a surfactant-coated glass slide, tilt slightly following the addition of short lengths of single stranded DNA.
Kagan and Murray fabricated the first electronic
circuits from nanometer scale semiconductor particles known as quantum dots.
These quantum dots are synthesized in solution and tailored in the shape of
cubes so when they are assembled into solids, they fill space. The nanoscale cubes allow for high
performance thin film electronics. The chemistry developed further allowed
these circuits to be realized on plastics for flexible electronic applications.