#thin films

(Nanowerk News) As materials become thinner – now reaching a thickness of single atoms – it has become ever more difficult to create large enough sheets of these materials and transfer them without cracking them into tiny flakes. Recent work by a broad Amsterdam-based team of scientists, published in the journal ACS Nano ("Large-Area Deterministic Stamping of 2D Materials on Patterned Surfaces"), presents a new technique that solves this problem – using an unexpected material that can be found in any home kitchen.

Newswise — Many of today’s electronic devices — from the semiconductors in your cell phone to the photovoltaic cells in your solar panels — are built on thin-film substrates. The thin film is an electronically conductive material while the substrate is an inert material. Or is it? Physicists and materials scientists have long assumed substrates do not react to electrical stimulus, but new research from the University of California San Diego and a team of collaborators has shown that substrates are not inert after all. The discovery has the potential to help engineers build the dense, three-dimensional, brain-inspired computer chips needed for more energy-efficient computing. This work appears in Science. The research began four years ago in UC San Diego Associate Professor of Physics Alex Frañó’s lab. Frañó is a principal investigator and assistant director at the Quantum Materials for Energy-Efficient Neuromorphic Computing (Q-MEEN-C), one of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Frontier Research Centers. One of the goals of Q-MEEN-C is to develop quantum materials that can be used in neuromorphic, or “brain-like” computing. 

(Nanowerk News) Publishing in the journal npj Flexible Electronics ("Electromechanical docking and undocking mechanisms for thin-film robotic and electronic modules based on kinetic electronics"), researchers from Kyushu University have developed prototype thin-film electronic modules that can automatically connect and disconnect with each other. Flexible electronics is a growing field of research because of its potential application in wearable sensors, soft robotics, and medical devices.

(Nanowerk News) Due to their high porosity, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are regarded as promising materials for innovative applications, which is why the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded in 2025 for their discovery. They are used, for example, to store gases, to capture CO2, and for the targeted delivery of medicines. While the structure of MOFs in the form of large crystals can be determined with relative ease, thin films have largely remained a mystery. Yet it is precisely the structure that is decisive for the properties and for potential applications.

Ultra-thin MoS₂ computer packs 1,400 transistors onto one chip

The rapid advancement and diffusion of artificial intelligence (AI) systems, such as the machine learning models underpinning the functioning of ChatGPT, Gemini and similar platforms, have posed new demands on the electronics engineering industry. In fact, these systems are computationally intensive and consume substantial power, particularly when running on existing devices. Electronics engineers worldwide have thus been trying to develop new hardware systems that can run machine learning algorithms more energy efficiently, without adversely affecting their performance. One promising approach for reducing power consumption entails the use of two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors, ultrathin materials that have already proved promising for the development of smaller electronics. Researchers at Nanjing University, Suzhou Laboratory and Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. recently developed and fabricated a fully functional computer based on the 2D semiconductor molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂).

Van der Waals forces can play unexpected role in thin film properties

Researchers have demonstrated the ability to use van der Waals forces to tune the physical and electronic properties of ferroelectric thin films. The work opens the door to new techniques for engineering materials for use in smaller, more energy efficient electronic devices. "Epitaxy is when you deposit a crystalline layer of material on top of another crystalline layer of material," says Yin Liu, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at North Carolina State University and co-corresponding author of a paper on the work published in ACS Nano. "When you are doing this with thin films, and the two layers are chemically bonded, the structure of those two layers have to match. However, if the two layers are bonded using van der Waals forces, the layers can have different orientations.

'Flawless on the outside, flipped within': Detecting hidden defects in 2D dielectrics with light

A material may appear flawless on the surface yet fail to function properly. The cause lies in structural defects hidden within two-dimensional thin films, which are considered key materials for next-generation semiconductor devices. Recently, a Korean research team developed an optical analysis method that can identify these invisible defects using light. A research team led by Professor Sunmin Ryu and Ph.D. candidate Yeri Lee, of the Department of Chemistry at Pohang University of Science and Technology, has developed an interferometric second-harmonic generation imaging approach capable of optically identifying hidden structural defects in thin films of hexagonal boron nitride, or hBN, a promising material for next-generation semiconductor technologies. The study was published in Advanced Materials.

Ultra-thin semiconductors overcome performance limits with localized thick-contact design

As semiconductor chips become increasingly thinner, the components inside chips are locked in a fierce race to achieve the ultimate ultra-thin state. However, this has presented a structural limitation: the thinner the device, the harder it is for electricity to flow. Recently, a research team at POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology) successfully resolved this issue through a simple yet innovative approach: "thickening only the necessary parts." The research team, led by Professor Byoung Hun Lee from POSTECH's Department of Electrical Engineering and the Department of Semiconductor Engineering, has developed a technology that dramatically lowers contact resistance by redesigning the metal-semiconductor contact structure in ultra-thin tellurium (Te) transistors.