Researchers could use magnetite, a magnetic mineral, to create superfast computing devices.
Magnetite could allow innovators to create "tiny transistors that control the flow of electricity across silicon chips," resulting in faster computing abilities, a U.S. Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory press release reported.
Researchers used an X-ray laser to determine the speed of which it took a switch to flip between on and off in magnetite samples, which was one-trillionth of a second. The switch is thousands of times faster than current transistors.
"This breakthrough research reveals for the first time the 'speed limit' for electrical switching in this material," Roopali Kukreja, a materials science researcher at SLAC and leader of the study, said.
The study also helped researchers learn how "conducting and non-conducting states can coexist and create electrical pathways in next-generation transistors."
A laser was beamed onto the samples, which "fragmented the material's electronic structure at an atomic scale." The material rearranged itself to form islands. A short X-ray pulse allowed the team to observe how the material reacted to the laser.
The X-rays showed researchers how long it took for the structures to rearrange themselves from non-conducting "islands," to a conducting state when hit with the laser.
Scientists have known about magnetite for thousands of years, but the research team revealed some of its electronic properties that had never been seen before
Magnetite must be cooled down to negative 370 degrees Fahrenheit in order to keep the electrical charge in place. The study hopes to look for a more room temperature solution.
Future studies will examine other exotic materials in order to find even more efficient and successful ways to induce switching.
Hermann Dürr, the principal investigator of the study, said modern scientists are on a mission to improve the current transistor material in order to create "smaller, faster, computers."
