Novel Alkali-Noble Metal Acetylides With High Johnson Figures of Merit

REU: Materials REU | AUTHOR: Theodora Ciobanu​ – University of Notre Dame

MENTOR: Vladan Stevanovic – Colorado School of Mines

ABSTRACT

As we shift into higher frequency communications, it is clear that silicon is an inefficient material, and does not allow for further technological progress in power electronics. For power electronics, we need materials with a high saturation velocity of the carriers and a high breakdown electric field. These two properties can be combined into the Johnson Figure of Merit (JFOM). Our goal throughout this project was to find a synthesizable compound that has a higher JFOM for n and p type semiconductors. Through DFT calculations and data mining, we discovered a set of compounds with similar crystal structures that appear to be better candidates for transistors in radio frequency electronics. These compounds are alkali metal – noble metal acetylides, which have the formula C2A1B1, where C is carbon, A is a group 1 alkali metal, and B is a group 11 transition metal. These compounds have a JFOM of two to seven times greater than that of silicon, which makes them promising candidates as materials for high frequency transmissions.