Engineers from the University of Utah found a way to let computers perform faster calculations without overheating by placing a special metallic material layer on top of a semiconductor.

The new discovery could potentially lead to production of cost-effective superfast computers.

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Materials Science and Engineering Professor Feng Liu leads the research at the University of Utah, along with postdoctoral fellows Miao Zhou, Zheng Liu, and Zhengfei Wang, and doctoral student Wenmei Ming.

He and his team discovered that using bismuth metal deposited on silicon results in a more stable insulator that creates a large energy gap.

The new metallic material, also known as a new topological insulator, acts as an insulator inwardly and a conductor outwardly.

Scientists have been researching for potential uses of these insulators to boost computer performance since their discovery about a decade ago.

"We can put it on silicon so it can be married or combined with the existing semiconductor technology. This is very important. It makes it more experimentally feasible and practically realistic," said Feng Liu.

An insulator with larger energy gap allows electricity to flow on the surface while keeping the computer stable and operational at room temperature.

"It has the largest energy gap that was ever predicted. It makes room-temperature applications a possibility for topological insulator-based devices or computers," Feng Liu added.

TagsUniversity of Utah, Insulator