With nanotechnology on the priority list of all researchers, microelectronics and nano electronics had been on the lookout for a superconducting chip developed from a semiconductor. The researches were seemingly futile until now, but all this has now changed with the development of a germanium Superconductor developed by Scientists at the Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (FZD). The conversion was brought about by an atom doping method called the ion implantation of the semiconductor germanium. As a convention such semiconductors need an extreme amount of foreign atoms to change into a superconductor. The germanium lattice gets heavily damaged in the process and it is then redeemed in a flash-lamp annealing facility specially developed at the FZD. The heat provided by the flash-lamp repairs the lattice whist maintaining the atom count.
Silicon chips have taken over as transistors but the scope for further development is limited. It is in this case that germanium (a former constituent of transistors) can redeem itself for it has the ability to get converted into thin oxide layers. Also, the fact that germanium enables faster processes, germanium could eventually be the superconductor, the novel computers of the future had been waiting for.
Via: Sciencedaily
