‘Nano-Earthquakes’ Result in Faster Electronic Components

Scientists from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology are working towards rocking the world of electronics. According to researchers Dr. Sumeet Walia as well as Dr. Amgad Rezk, the main key to connect the power of 2D materials lies under the Nano-earthquakes. They added that they have been able to find that the sound waves, if properly controlled will be able to influence the electronic properties of 2D materials such as graphene.

What are these earthquakes? 

The earthquakes as being referred by the researcher are no way linked with the actual earthquakes creating havoc around the world. But they are referring this to so called SAWs, which are surface acoustic waves, with the ability to circulate through a material. The researcher used this material as a source of photoluminescence rather than a semiconductor.

They took a layer which was coupled with several atoms to a substrate to understand the behaviour of SAWs rippling across the surface of the material. According to the experiment conducted by the researchers, they have utilized molybdenum disulfide, which is a quasi-2D material, with the ability to act as a semiconductor just like silicon.

The team was further able to modulate the electronic properties of the 2D material by controlling the intensity as well as direction of the ripples throughout the experiment. This research shed critical light on the relationship existing between the electronic performance of the molybdenum disulfide layer and the nano-quakes. Researchers found that with the increase in the intensity of the ripples, there was an increase in the photoluminescence property of the 2D material. More number of ripples led to the emitting of light from the layer.

What is the use of this technology? 

Scientists believe that the sound waves starts acting like the carriers of electrons and there by dragging them throughout the surface of the material as they are circulating. This is the main reason for change in the electronic property of the material. This ensures that the electrical conductance of the material is constantly increased till the time system is active.

The researchers believe that this technology will have lot of uses in the near future in terms of 2D materials, mainly towards the opto-eletric applications. A simple example is the camera quality in the Smartphone. The cameras of the Smartphones are often criticized for their low quality and poor adaptation to the dark due their small sensor size. Just image having a smartphone having a sensor made out of the 2D material which will increase the sensitivity of the lenses in the darkness by using the sound waves in the camera module. The manipulation of the sound as well as the 2D materials can certainly lead to an improvement in the solar panels as well.

As per the RMIT research team, increasing desirability of 2D materials has made this technology very strong and robust. They added that once the acoustic vibrations were stopped during the experiment, the molybdenum disulfide layer of the material regained its unique electronic state and no damage was seen in the material.