Vanderbilt Ph.D. candidate Junhao Lin created one of the smallest wires ever made, Laboratory Equipment reported. It's three atoms wide, leaving little room for others to break his record.
Lin used a beam of electrons to engineer a wire one thousandth the size of the ones that connect transistors in today's circuits, according to Laboratory Equipment. His work was described in a journal article published on Monday.
"Junhao used a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) that is capable of focusing a beam of electrons down to a width of half an angstrom (about half the size of an atom) and aims this beam with exquisite precision," said Wu Zhou, who had trained him in microscopy.
Any invention that decreases the size of electrical components is important for science. Lin's is even more significant because the atomic monolayers that make up his wire are exceptionally strong and flexible with a high rate of electron mobility.
"Junhao took this project and really ran with it," said Sokrates Pantelides, professor of physics and engineering at Vanderbilt.
Lins run began with the 2004 discovery of the metal grapheme (broken down to a few atoms) as a similarly small and exceptional conductor of electricity. Yet, scientists haven't been able to translate its amazing properties into real world uses. Thus, they shifted towards other metals, specifically combining molybdenum or tungsten with either sulfur or selenium. Lin used the same process for his wire. He believes his breathrough will continue research into "monolary circuit design," essentially making the world both a more and less-wired place.
"This will likely stimulate a huge research interest in monolayer circuit design," Lin said. "Because this technique uses electron irradiation, it can in principle be applicable to any kind of electron-based instrument, such as electron-beam lithography."
