Sapphire Discovery Could Reshape Future Brain - Inspired Electronics

BYLINE: Joseph E. Harmon Newswise — Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source X-ray beams reveal unexpected behavior of a thin film grown on a sapphire base, challenging conventional wisdom in microelectronics. Microelectronic devices often depend on super-thin films — sometimes less than 10 nanometers thick — that can switch from blocking to transmitting electricity in response to a small voltage. To work properly in a device, however, these films must be grown on a solid supporting base. A new study by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and collaborating institutions shows that, in these systems, the base layer is not merely a passive foundation on which a device is fabricated. Working with vanadium dioxide films grown on sapphire, the team found that when the film transitions from electrically insulating to conducting, it strains the sapphire beneath it. The sapphire strain, in turn, feeds…