Meet Silicene, Single-Atom-Thick Sheets of Silicon That Could Supersede Graphene - Polidicks

[QUOTE]Silicene could be the material of the future. Or at least the material of the near future, until graphene-based semiconductors become more efficient. A team of European researchers claims to be the first to synthesize silicene, a new allotrope of element No. 14 that forms two-dimensional single-atom sheets rather than three-dimensional crystals. This could be good news for the semiconductor industry. While graphene is the most conductive material in existence, its lack of a band gap can actually be a hindrance when you’re trying to build an effective transistor. IBM has shown it’s possible to build graphene transistors, but it may be a while before this type of research percolates from the lab to the factory. Silicene’s one-atom-thick structure could be even more effective in building faster transistors and computers, partly because of how its electrons are arranged. A silicene sheet has a buckled honeycomb structure, seen below, in which a few atoms are arranged above and below the main sheet. Electrons in these locations have distinct energies, and when a voltage is applied, they can jump across the gap, allowing silicene to serve as an on-off transistor. Silicene sheets would thereby bring silicon’s superb on-off abilities to the smallest scales possible, while remaining compatible with existing fabrication processes and existing electronics. That’s something graphene can’t do, at least not yet. A new paper describes how a team led by Guy Le Lay at Aix-Marseille University in France created silicene sheets on a silver substrate. Just as predicted, the material had a buckled honeycomb structure, which the researchers verified using scanning tunneling microscopy and angular-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. At least four research groups have claimed to grow silicene on silver substrates before this, but the team led by Le Ley claim to be the first to have clear, microscopic proof. The next step is to grow silicene on insulators to further examine its properties. The paper by Le Ley et al. appears in Physical Review Letters. [img]http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/articles/silicon.png[/img][/QUOTE] Source: [url]http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-05/meet-silicene-single-atom-thick-sheets-silicon-could-supersede-graphene[/url]

Did you just post three threads in a row?

Awesome! Can't wait for Carbon based semiconductors

[QUOTE=AJisAwesome15;35807632]Did you just post three threads in a row?[/QUOTE] Yes. I usually post 3-4 news articles at a time, especially when Popular Science updates. Though I've made it a rule for myself never to post more than 5 within a few hours so I don't get banned for spamming (even though I only post articles I think Facepunch will find relevant)

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;35812600]Yes. I usually post 3-4 news articles at a time, especially when Popular Science updates. Though I've made it a rule for myself never to post more than 5 within a few hours so I don't get banned for spamming (even though I only post articles I think Facepunch will find relevant)[/QUOTE] You get banned for spamming science? Damn conservative mods infesting FP with their backwards views.

[QUOTE=just-a-boy;35816733]You get banned for spamming science? Damn conservative mods infesting FP with their backwards views.[/QUOTE] Well no, not for the topics themselves, just for spamming 20,000 different articles in general. The most I think I've ever posted at once was 10, and most people in the threads only talked about me posting so many instead of the topics at hand. That was a couple years ago, though.

[url=http://facepunch.com/threads/1181313]A bit late to the gravy train, aren't we?[/url] I also like how this thread is less than 12 hours old, and has nearly twice as many replies as the day-old thread. :v: I mean, the titles are exactly the same, even. :v: Also, this thread gets 17 winners, older thread only 2 winners and 7 usefuls. How does that even work?

Does nobody ever read my threads? :( [url]http://www.facepunch.com/threads/1181313[/url] [editline]3rd May 2012[/editline] Maybe because I'm not a gold member.