Scientists in North Carolina and Tennessee have made a major breakthrough on both understanding and controlling just exactly what does happen at the Schottky barrier, where a matrix of silicon and oxygen atoms by necessity merges into a different matrix of silicon atoms only. Their newly-developed concept of a “Coulomb buffer,” a region between oxide (above) and silicon (below) in nanoswitches that can be “tuned” through atomic-level manipulation for desirable semiconductor characteristics, is an advance that will benefit both researchers and manufacturers. Their new-found ability to “tune” the atomic-level zone between these two substances will “change common beliefs” in the field of semiconductor physics and could open the way for smaller, faster and smarter computers.

The work is published in the June 13 issue of Science by lead researcher Buongiorno Nardelli.