'Tiny crystals may lead to more powerful digital devices'

Scientists have developed a tiny electrical circuit that may lead to new digital devices with increasing amounts of computational power packed into a smaller space.

The electrical circuit created by researchers at Curtin University in Australia is made from crystals of copper that are grown and electrically wired at nanoscale.

The researchers used a single nanoparticle to create an ensemble of different diodes - a basic electronic component of most modern electronic devices, which functions by directing the flow of electric currents.

In the research published in the journal ACS Nano, the team used a single copper nanoparticle to compress in a single physical entity that would normally require many individual diode elements.

 

The researchers showed that each nanoparticle had an in-built range of electrical signatures and had led to something akin to 'one particle, many diodes', thereby opening up the concept of single-particle circuitry.

The breakthrough would enable new concepts and methods in the design of miniaturised circuitry, said Yan Vogel from Curtin University.

"Instead of wiring-up a large number of different sorts of diodes, as is done now, we have shown that the same outcome is obtained by many wires landing accurately over a single physical entity, which in our case is a copper nanocrystal," Vogel said.