Scientists Develop World's Fastest Graphene Transistor

IBM Scientists from the company&acutes T. J. Waston Research Center have demonstrated the operation of a graphene field-effect transistors at GHz frequencies. Graphene is a special form of graphite, consisting of a single layer of carbon atoms packed in honeycomb lattice, similar to an atomic scale chicken wire. With a top gate deisgn and a gate length 150 nm, the team has achieved a cut-off frequency of 26 GHz for graphene transistors; the highest frequencies reported so far using this novel non-silicon electronic material.

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First superconducting transistor promises PC revolution

THE world's first superconducting transistor, a long-standing goal for applied physicists, could lead to dramatically faster microchips.

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The Discovery of the Transistor

The transistor was invented at Bell Laboratories in December 1947 (not in 1948 as is often stated) by John Bardeen and Walter Brattain. 'Discovered' would be a better word, for although they were seeking a solid-state equivalent to the vacuum tube, it was found accidentally during the investigation of the surface states around a diode point-contact. The first transistors were therefore of the point-contact type. William Shockley, the theorist who was leading the research, knew at once that this was not what he was seeking: at the time he was trying to create a solid-state device similar to what we now call a junction field-effect transistor (JFET).

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Listening To Dark Matter

A team of researchers in Canada have made a bold stride in the struggle to detect dark matter. The PICASSO collaboration has documented the discovery of a significant difference between the acoustic signals induced by neutrons and alpha particles in a detector based on superheated liquids.

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Dark matter comes out of the cold

Astronomers have for the first time put some real numbers on the physical characteristics of dark matter.

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Dark Matter

Nearly 50 years ago, Fritz Zwicky realized that clusters of galaxies consisted predominantly of matter in some nonluminous form. The search for dark matter has dominated cosmology for half a century. Precise measurements were obtained over 20 years ago, when dark matter was first mapped in galaxy halos. Only recently has the existence of dark matter over much larger scales than even galaxy clusters been confirmed.

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The search for dark matter

Experiments housed deep underground are searching for new particles that could simultaneously solve one of the biggest mysteries in astrophysics and reveal what lies beyond the Standard Model of particle physics.

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