Switching identities: Revolutionary insulator-like material also conducts electricity

University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers have made a material that can transition from an electricity-transmitting metal to a nonconducting insulating material without changing its atomic structure.

A material that can switch to conducting electricity like a metal without moving its atoms could dramatically advance switching speeds of advanced devices. “The metal-to-insulator transition is very important for switches and for logic devices with a one or a zero state,” says Chang-Beom Eom, professor of materials science and engineering. “We have the potential to use this concept to make very fast switches.”

The new material could lay the groundwork for ultrafast electronic devices, such as the cellphones and computers of the future. Eom and his international team of collaborators published details of their advance today (Nov. 29, 2018) in the journal Science.

Read more at University of Wisconsin–Madison

Image Credit: Sam Million-Weaver

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