Low mobility of electrons have been a hindrance for using oxide-electronics. A research group at DTU Energy Conversion has succeeded in increasing the mobility of electrons with a factor of 100 by using a new type of material. This is mentioned in an article the 3rd December 2013 in the newspaper Ingeniøren.
Oxide-electronics can add magnetism and superconductivity to modern electronics.
So says Professor Nini Pryds from DTU Energy Conversion to the newspaper Ingeniøren, Denmark's leading news site with articles for everyone interested in technology and science.
"Oxides may be an alternative to the conventional semiconductor materials ", assesses prof. Nini Pryds, whose research group at DTU Energy Conversion studies how electrical conduction occurs in the boundary layer between two oxide layers, which are insulators themselves.
The problem has so far been the low electron mobility of the oxides, but in an article this year in Nature Communications, the DTU group reported that a combination of alumina (Al2O3) and strontium titanate (SrTiO3) is particularly suitable for achieving high electron mobility.
The higher electron mobility, the faster electronic components can be produced.
The mobility of the electrons is determined by the time an electron moves in the crystal before it collides with an impurity or a lattice vibration (phonon).
To people researching in oxid-electronics it has been known for years that a so-called two-dimensional gas forms in the boundary layer between LaAlO3 and SrTiO3. And at low temperatures a few degrees above absolute zero it has been possible to obtain an electron mobility of about 1,000 cm ^ 2/(Vs)
This corresponds to the electron mobility of semiconductor materials 40 years ago.
Using a technique known as pulsed laser deposition, the researchers from DTU Energy Conversion have now developed an advanced method for depositing very thin films to minimize defects in the boundary layer and thereby increase the electron mobility.
Read the Ingeniøren-article (in Danish) here