Silicon is one of the most abundant elements on Earth, and in its pure form the material has become the foundation of much of modern technology, from solar cells to computer chips. But silicon's properties as a semiconductor are far from ideal.
For one thing, although silicon lets electrons whizz through its structure easily, it is much less accommodating to "holes" -; electrons' positively charged counterparts -; and harnessing both is important for some kinds of chips. What's more, silicon is not very good at conducting heat, which is why overheating issues and expensive cooling systems are common in computers.
现在，麻省理工学院，休斯顿大学和其他机构的一组研究人员进行了实验，表明一种称为立方硼烷尼德的材料克服了这两种限制。它为电子和孔提供了高迁移率，并且具有极好的导热率。研究人员说，这是有史以来最好的半导体材料，也许是最好的材料。
So far, cubic boron arsenide has only been made and tested in small, lab-scale batches that are not uniform. The researchers had to use special methods originally developed by former MIT postdoc Bai Song to test small regions within the material. More work will be needed to determine whether cubic boron arsenide can be made in a practical, economical form, much less replace the ubiquitous silicon. But even in the near future, the material could find some uses where its unique properties would make a significant difference, the researchers say.
这些发现在期刊中报道亚博老虎机网登录在麻省理工学院博士后Jungwoo Shin和MIT机械工程帮派教授的论文中；休斯顿大学的希芬·伦；以及麻省理工学院，休斯顿大学，德克萨斯大学奥斯汀大学和波士顿学院的14名。
较早的研究，包括新论文的合着者戴维·布罗伊多（David Broido）的作品，理论上预测材料将具有很高的导热率。随后的工作证明了实验预测。这项最新工作通过实验确认了陈小组在2018年做出的预测来完成分析：Cubic Boron Arsenide也将对电子和孔的移动性也很高，“which makes this material really unique,"陈说。
The earlier experiments showed that the thermal conductivity of cubic boron arsenide is almost 10 times greater than that of silicon. "因此，这仅仅是对散热的吸引力，“陈说。他们还表明，该材料具有非常好的带隙，该属性具有巨大的潜力作为半导体材料。
Now, the new work fills in the picture, showing that, with its high mobility for both electrons and holes, boron arsenide has all the main qualities needed for an ideal semiconductor.“这很重要，因为当然，在半导体中，我们同样具有正电荷和负电荷。因此，如果您构建设备，则希望拥有一种材料，而电子和孔都以较小的电阻传播，”Chen says.
硅具有良好的电子迁移率，但孔迁移率较差，其他材料（例如砷化炮）广泛用于激光器，同样对电子的迁移率良好，但对孔也没有。亚博网站下载
“Heat is now a major bottleneck for many electronics,"该文件的主要作者Shin说。“碳化硅正在替代包括特斯拉在内的主要电动汽车行业中的电力电子产品的硅，因为尽管其电气迁移率较低，但它的导热率还是硅的三倍。想象一下，硼芳烃可以达到什么，其导热率高10倍，而迁移率高10倍。它可以是gamechanger。”
Shin补充说，“使这一发现成为可能的关键里程碑是MIT超快激光光栅系统的进步，“initially developed by Song. Without that technique, he says, it would not have been possible to demonstrate the material's high mobility for electrons and holes.
他说。休斯顿大学的团队。
Not only is the material's thermal conductivity the best of any semiconductor, the researchers say, it has the third-best thermal conductivity of any material -; next to diamond and isotopically enriched cubic boron nitride.“And now, we predicted the electron and hole quantum mechanical behavior, also from first principles, and that is also proven to be true,"Chen says.
“这是令人印象深刻的，因为除了石墨烯以外，我实际上不知道拥有所有这些特性的其他材料，”他说。“这是具有这些特性的批量材料。”
他说，现在面临的挑战是找出以可用数量制造这种材料的实用方法。当前使其产生非常不均匀的材料的方法，因此团队必须找到方法来仅测试足够均匀的材料的小局部斑块，以提供可靠的数据。尽管他们证明了这种材料的巨大潜力，但“我们不知道是否或实际使用它的地方，”Chen says.
“硅是整个行业的主力军，”陈说。“So, OK, we've got a material that's better, but is it actually going to offset the industry- We don't know."While the material appears to be almost an ideal semiconductor, "whether it can actually get into a device and replace some of the current market, I think that still has yet to be proven."
And while the thermal and electrical properties have been shown to be excellent, there are many other properties of a material that have yet to be tested, such as its long-term stability, Chen says.“To make devices, there are many other factors that we don't know yet."
他补充说，“这可能真的很重要，人们甚至没有真正关注这种材料。”现在，硼arsenide的理想特性已经变得更加清晰，表明材料是“从许多方面来说，最好的半导体”他说， ”maybe there will be more attention paid to this material."
对于商业用途，Ren说，“一个巨大的挑战将是如何像硅一样有效地生产和净化立方硼arsenide。…硅花了数十年的时间赢得了冠冕，纯度纯度超过99.99999999％，或“ 10尼斯”今天的批量生产。”
陈说，它在市场上变得实用。“it really requires more people to develop different ways to make better materials and characterize them."他说，是否可以提供这种开发的必要资金。
该研究得到了美国海军研究办公室的支持，并在国家科学基金会的支持下使用了MIT MRSEC共享实验设施的设施。亚博老虎机网登录
