Department of Energy awards nearly $1M grant to University of Arkansas physicists
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — University of Arkansas physicists have received $975,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy to study a new material that could make computers faster and more energy-efficient.
Led by Charles Paillard, a professor of physics at the university, the team will focus on aluminum scandium nitride, a material that could be used in future computer chips, according to a news release.
The goal of the research is to understand how this material works at the atomic level and how it could improve the performance of current silicon-based technology, which is used in most computers today.
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"In simple terms, we're trying to figure out how to move atoms with the least amount of energy," Paillard said.
Paillard, along with co-principal investigators Laurent Bellaiche and Gregory Salamo, will examine how aluminum scandium nitride could be integrated into existing silicon-based computing platforms, potentially leading to faster and more energy-efficient computers.
Aluminum scandium nitride has a unique property called "ferroelectricity," which means it can switch between two different electric states, according to the release. This makes it a good candidate for making faster, more energy-efficient computers.
Importantly, it can be added to current silicon chips, so it wouldn't require replacing all the existing technology, which would be very expensive and time-consuming.
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The project is being funded through the Department of Energy's Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) and involves collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado.
Post-doctoral researchers and graduate students from the University of Arkansas will have the opportunity to work at both the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and CentraleSupélec, an engineering school in France, to access advanced tools such as electron microscopes.
"To explore such a complex topic with a vast array of techniques, we need complementary groups to help us," Paillard said. "I would say it's a global effort."
