Beyond graphene: Tunable one-atom-thick materials for tomorrow’s technology

If you haven't kept a close eye on the fast-moving field of solid-state materials, you might not realize that novel carbon-based electronic materials such as nanotubes and graphene are already yesterday’s news. While some groups look for ways to overcome the limitations of these fascinating materials, Josh Goldberger’s lab is moving down the periodic table to create exotic single-atom-thick materials from germanium (“germanane”) and tin (“stannanane”) and build extraordinarily tiny transistors from them. They hope that these materials will conduct electric current without any dissipation while being stable and switchable, enabling the next-generation electronics needed for faster, energy-stingy computing.

For supplemental information about this New Horizons in Science briefing, see the CASW website