In a recent breakthrough, scientists have measured the “highest hole mobility” ever in a material compatible with standard silicon-based semiconductor manufacturing.
In modern semiconductor devices, silicon is of great importance because of its excellent properties. But a material from the 1950s called Germanium is catching the attention of researchers because of its superior electrical properties.
The recent research led by scientists from the University of Warwick and the National Research Council of Canada involves a nanometer-thin germanium epilayer on silicon developed under pressure.
According to findings published in Materials today, its technical structure is capable of moving electric charge faster and at record speed than any known silicon-compatible material.
The germanium material has reportedly achieved a hole mobility of 7.15 million cm2 per volt-second, compared to ~450 cm2 in industrial silicon.
Dr. Maksym Myronov, associate professor and leader of the Semiconductors Research Group, explains: “Traditional high-mobility semiconductors such as gallium arsenide (GaAs) are very expensive and impossible to integrate with mainstream silicon production.”
“Our new compressively strained germanium-on-silicon (cs-GoS) quantum material combines industry-leading mobility with industrial scalability – an important step toward practical quantum and classical large-scale integrated circuits,” he added.
The material also helps build faster and more energy-efficient quantum devices that are fully aligned with existing silicon technology.
The groundbreaking findings set a new benchmark for future applications including spin qubits, quantum information systems, AI accelerators, cryogenic controllers for quantum processors, and low-power servers.
