(July 6, 2015) Scientists
from the MIPT Department of Molecular and Chemical Physics have for the first
time described the behavior of electrons in a previously unstudied analogue of
graphene, two-dimensional niobium telluride, and, in the process, uncovered the
nature of two-dimensionality effects on conducting properties. These findings
will help in the creation of future flat and flexible electronic devices.
In recent decades, physicists have been actively studying
so-called two-dimensional materials. Andrei Geim and Konstantin Novoselov
received the Nobel Prize for their research on graphene, the most well-known
among them. The properties of such materials, which can be described as
“sheets” with a thickness of a few atoms, strongly differ from their
three-dimensional analogues. For example, graphene is transparent, conducts
current better than copper and has good thermal conductivity. Scientists
believe that other types of two-dimensional materials may possess even more
exotic properties.
A group of scientists from Russia and the USA, including
Pavel Sorokin and Liubov Antipina from MIPT, recently conducted research on the
properties of the crystals of one such material,Nb3SiTe6, a compound of niobium
telluride. In their structure, the crystals resemble sandwiches with a
thickness of three atoms (around 4 angstroms): a layer of tellurium, a layer of
niobium mixed with silicon atoms and then another layer of tellurium. This
substance belongs to a class of materials known as dichalcogenides, which many
scientists view as promising two-dimensional semiconductors.