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Researchers Create Glass Just 3 Atoms Thick

Posted by timothy on from the barely-a-glaze dept.

sciencehabit writes "Researchers have created the world's thinnest pane of glass. The glass, made of silicon and oxygen, formed accidentally when the scientists were making graphene, an atom-thick sheet of carbon, on copper-covered quartz. They believe an air leak caused the copper to react with the quartz, which is also made of silicon and oxygen, producing a glass layer with the graphene. The glass is a mere three atoms thick — the minimum thickness of silica glass—which makes it two-dimensional. The team notes that the structure 'strikingly resembles' a diagram drawn by a glass theorist attempting to unravel its structure back in 1932. Such ultra-thin glass could be used in semiconductor or graphene transistors." See Nano Letters for an abstract (and another picture) to the paywalled article.

8 of 160 comments (clear)

  1. Just wait until Apple hear about this by Hieronymus+Howard · · Score: 5, Funny

    And in related news, iPad 4 rumored to be just 2mm thick.

    1. Re:Just wait until Apple hear about this by jdastrup · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Next week, Ginsu sues Apple.

      No, it will be Apple that sues Ginsu.

      I still get a kick out of how they patented the magnetic connection for their power supplies, when my grandma's deep fryer had that exact same feature 30 years ago

  2. Two-dimensional? by Scutter · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The glass is a mere three atoms thick — the minimum thickness of silica glass—which makes it two-dimensional.

    It's not two dimensional if it has a measurable thickness, which you stated in that same sentence. Unless you have a different definition of "two dimensional" than the rest of us.

    --

    "Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
    1. Re:Two-dimensional? by DSS11Q13 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Perhaps it just had a bland personality?

    2. Re:Two-dimensional? by tungstencoil · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's not two dimensional if it has a measurable thickness, which you stated in that same sentence. Unless you have a different definition of "two dimensional" than the rest of us.

      Someone posted that same criticism in the article. Here is someone's reply (again, from the comments). I'm not a chemist or physicist, but what they say sounds reasonable:

      Hi Heather - fair enough, it's not 2D as in the mathematical concept, but 2D has a physical meaning as well - the thinnest version of a material. Because the silicon and oxygen atoms don't lay flat, glass needs a minimum of three layers of atoms (two silicon and one oxygen) to form a chemically stable sheet. Inside some of these technically 3D ultrathin materials, the electrons behave like their world is two dimensional.

    3. Re:Two-dimensional? by Artifakt · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's two dimensional, in that the graph of the atomic bonds is a flat, 2 dimensional graph. That's not "a different definition ... than the rest of us", that's called context. It's the definition a chemist would normally use. If you're trying to prove your brilliance by pointing out that the whole universe has nothing physical that is infinitely thin, sorry, but we stopped giving away Nobel prizes for that. At least four people basically modded you insightful for pointing out that atoms are not infinitely small - that makes Slashdot clearly three dimensional, because we have something infinitely thick around here.

      --
      Who is John Cabal?
  3. I hate to break it to them... by Shoten · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...but I think an old landlord of mine managed to do this, many years ago.

    --

    For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
  4. Re:Serious question: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Girl Scout cookies are made out of gorillas?