SnO: First Stable P-Type 2D Semiconductor Discovered (phys.org)

New submitter Namarrgon writes: Transistors made with Ashutosh Tiwari's new semiconducting material could lead to computers and smartphones that are more than 100 times faster than regular devices. While researchers in this field have recently discovered new types of 2D material such as graphene, molybdenun disulfide and borophene, they have been materials that only allow the movement of N-type, or negative, electrons. In order to create an electronic device, however, you need semiconductor material that allows the movement of both negative electrons and positive charges known as "holes." The tin monoxide material discovered by Tiwari and his team at the University of Utah is the first stable P-type 2D semiconductor material ever in existence.

Comments

No, you don't

[Anonymous Coward]

Vacuum tubes work marvelously well with only electrons.

Re:No, you don't

[fyngyrz]

n-type (negative) electrons

ha

ha ha ha

blargh hah ha hah ha

N-type semiconductors... the materials have excess electrons, and leverage that.

P-type semiconductors... the materials have an electron deficit, creating "holes" in the structure, and the material leverages those deficits.

There are no "positive" electrons. Well, there are, sort of, but they have little to nothing to do with n-type and p-type materials. Unless physics has completely rewritten semiconductor theory while I wasn't looking, which I suppose is possible.

Re:No, you don't

[fyngyrz]

PS: New leadership: Would you *please* consider hiring some editors that are at least somewhat technically competent? It would also be nice if, you know, they could... edit the written word competently. The best that can be said of slashdot's "editors" to date is that they have been a constant source of amusement for some. Wouldn't it be amazing if TFS's that actually hit the site were edited into well written presentations? Well, it would be for me. Reading most of them so far has been like being poked in the eye with a sharp stick.

Sounds cheaper, too

[sanosuke001]

Tin + Oxygen sounds a lot cheaper (and more readily available) than those iridium, molybdenum, etc compounds, too

Re:Sounds cheaper, too

[Anonymous Coward]

In the quantities that would be needed for the average piece of electronics, cost is really not an issue. Availability could be though.

Negative charges

[sjbe]

they have been materials that only allow the movement of N-type, or negative, electrons. In order to create an electronic device, however, you need semiconductor material that allows the movement of both negative electrons and positive charges known as "holes."

Captain pedantic here. Electron holes are not positive charges. They are the absence of an electron in a lattice where one could exist. This "hole" can be treated for convenience and practicality like a positively charged particle but that isn't technically the same thing.

Re:Negative charges

[bluefoxlucid]

As much as I remember 'bout PNP and NPN questions on my radio technician's licensing test from when I was 11, the whole description is a journalistic goofusism.

What I remember is the semiconductor substrate is doped to favor a particular charge--positive or negative--and so it acts according in an electrical circuit. If you have two N-type materials wired into a circuit with a P-type material separating them, the N-type material will resist electrical current flow because electrons want to move into a negative-charge area. Apply charge against the P-type material and it starts moving negative charge out of the N-type materials, and you wind up with a P-type channel between the two wires--a CONDUCTIVE P-type channel.

That's, of course, a messy description. The point is you're not moving holes through P-type material and electrons through N-type material; you're only moving electrons, and altering the charge of areas of the substrate. Semiconductor gates are highly-complex engineered structures, not cables that allow you to swap void with electron.

Re:Negative charges

[jouassou]

If you really want to be pedantic, then the negative charges aren't really electrons either. Both the positive and negative charges are quasiparticles, which are particle-like excitations of a large sea of actual electrons in the semiconductor. The collective behaviour of all these electrons then results in something that looks like a single electron with a different mass and sometimes the wrong charge. But it's usually easier to just call these quasiparticles "electrons" and "holes", because that's what they intuitively behave like.

Vacuous remarks

[fyngyrz]

Vacuum tubes work marvelously well with only electrons.

If by "marvelously well" you mean with high random noise levels, comparatively low current capacities, and comparatively huge volume requirements, sure.

And if by "only electrons" you mean "only electrons, neutrons, protons, electromagnetic fields and - of course - vacuum, sure.

Devices 100 Times faster ? No

[Crashmarik]

Electron transit speed is not the limiting factor in device speed. Don't know who wrote the article but there is no way your Iphone is getting a 200 GHZ cpu from this.

Re:So finally we can say -

[rubycodez]

the Amazon planet has dioxide tech so they sing

let it SnOO-SnOO

Re:What the heck is "2D"?

[serviscope_minor]

What's wrong with calling it 2D? Electron motion is effectively limited to two dimensions, and it doesn't make much sense to talk about lateral movement through the degenerate dimension. And if you hate this you'll be even more angry that scientists often refer to quantum dots as zero dimensional.