Israeli scientists create the world's thinnest tech - just 2 atoms thick

In layman's terms, it could significantly boost the speed and efficiency of electronic devices, while also cutting down on energy consumption.

The world's thinnest technology, just two atoms thick, made at Tel Aviv University (Illustrative). (photo credit: TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY)
The world's thinnest technology, just two atoms thick, made at Tel Aviv University (Illustrative).
(photo credit: TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY)
Researchers at Tel Aviv University have made a new scientific breakthrough, engineering what is currently the single smallest and thinnest piece of technology ever seen, and it has the thickness of just two atoms.
The result of a multi-disciplinary effort from TAU's Raymond and Beverly Sackler schools of Physics and Astronomy and of Chemistry, the findings of the study were published in Science magazine
But this breakthrough isn't just defined by its size. Rather, it also possesses useful utility. Essentially, the technology works by using quantum-mechanical electron tunneling, which allows information to travel through the thin film.
Right now, state-of-the-art devices have tiny crystals with a million atoms (one hundred atoms in height, width and thickness). Essentially, this means a million of these tiny divides could fit into the area of a coin, each device switching over a million times per second. 
This breakthrough means that the tiny crystals can be shrunk to just two atoms thick, meaning that memories and information can move with greater speed and efficiency.
It could significantly boost the speed and efficiency of electronic devices, while also reducing energy consumption.
 
 
The technology itself is made of layers of boron and nitrogen in a hexagonal structure, but breaks the symmetry by assembling two layers of the structure. 
"The symmetry breaking we created in the laboratory, which does not exist in the natural crystal, forces the electric charge to reorganize itself between the layers and generate a tiny internal electrical polarization perpendicular to the layer plane," PhD student Maayan Wizner Stern, who led the study, explained in a statement. 
"When we apply an external electric field in the opposite direction, the system slides laterally to switch the polarization orientation," she said. "The switched polarization remains stable even when the external field is shut down. In this, the system is similar to thick, three-dimensional ferroelectric systems, which are widely used in technology today."

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According to Dr. Ben Shalom, one of the researchers, "The concept of interlayer sliding as an original and efficient way to control advanced electronic devices is very promising, and we have named it Slide-Tronics."