Scientists create armour for fragile quantum technology

Full article issued by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies (FLEET).

An international team of scientists with ARC support has invented the equivalent of body armour for extremely fragile quantum systems, which will make them robust enough to be used as the basis for a new generation of low-energy electronics.

The scientists applied the armour by gently squashing droplets of liquid metal gallium onto the materials, coating them with gallium oxide.

Protection is crucial for thin materials such as graphene, which are only a single atom thick – essentially two-dimensional (2D) – and so are easily damaged by conventional layering technology, said Matthias Wurdack, who is the lead author of the group’s publication in Advanced Materials.

'The protective coating basically works like a body armour for the atomically-thin material, it shields against high-energy particles, which would cause a large degree of harm to it, while fully maintaining its optoelectronic properties and its functionality,' said Mr Wurdack, a PhD student in the Nonlinear Physics Centre (NLPC) of The Australian National University's Research School of Physics, and the FLEET ARC Centre of Excellence.

The new technique opens the way for an industry based on ultra-thin electronics to expand, said leader of the research team and ARC Future Fellowship recipient, Professor Elena Ostrovskaya, also from NLPC and FLEET.

 

FLEET PhD student Matthias Wurdack. Image Credit: Phil Dooley ANU.