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Scientists Create New Type of Semiconductor that Holds Superconducting Promise

International team of physicists’ innovation could vastly advance wireless communications, computer speed, and aerospace technology.

Josephson junction structures—quantum devices made of two superconductors and a thin non-superconducting barrier—using different forms of germanium (Ge): super-Ge (in gold), semi-conducting Ge (in blue), and super-Ge on wafer-level scale. Millions of Josephson junction pix-els (10 micrometer square) can be created with this new material stack on wafer scale. Inset shows crystalline form of Super-Ge on the same matrix of semiconductor Ge, a key for crystal-line Josephson junction. (Image by Patrick Strohbeen/NYU)

By James Devitt NYU Managing Director of Public Affairs Scientists have long sought to make semiconductors—vital components in computer chips and solar cells—that are also superconducting, thereby enhancing their speed and energy efficiency and enabling new quantum technologies. However, achieving superconductivity in semiconductor materials such as silicon and germanium has proved challenging due to difficulty in maintaining an optimal atomic structure with the desired conduction behavior.In...

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