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Harnessing atomic structure to advance semiconductor technology Researchers led by Rohan Mishra at Washington University in St. Louis have uncovered why hafnia, the insulating layer in silicon transistors, becomes ferroelectric when grown extremely thin. Rather than forcing it into a conventional ferroelectric phase, they found that stabilizing an antiferroelectric structure and switching it electrically offers a more practical route to memory storage and high energy density capacitors. The team combined quantum mechanical modeling with atomic resolution electron microscopy and single crystal film synthesis by collaborators at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Georgia Tech. In a related study on zirconia, they observed ferroelectric domains smaller than one square nanometer and predicted that the domain walls could conduct electricity and respond to an electric bias, hinting at atomically thin memory components. Because these oxides are compatible with existing silicon chip manufacturing, the findings suggest engineers can tune electronic behavior at the atomic level without introducing new materials or components. For researchers, the work also shows how tightly pairing theory with microscopy can resolve long standing puzzles in thin film behavior. https://t.co/Ttj4EiFovF