Researchers Create Graphite Memory 10 Atoms Thick 135
CWmike writes "Researchers at Rice University have demonstrated a new data storage medium made out of a layer of graphite only 10 atoms thick. The technology could potentially provide many times the capacity of current flash memory and withstand temperatures of 200 degrees Celsius and radiation that would make solid-state disk memory disintegrate. 'Though we grow it from the vapor phase, this material [graphene] is just like graphite in a pencil. You slide these right off the end of your pencil onto paper. If you were to place Scotch tape over it and pull up, you can sometimes pull up as small as one sheet of graphene. It is a little under 1 nanometer thick,' Professor James Tour said."
Re:10 Atoms thick? (Score:2, Informative)
In this instance, it seems highly likely that they're referring to atoms of carbon as those are the atoms which compose the material involved.
She told me size doesn't matter... (Score:5, Informative)
Reading the articles, it appears the size is nice, but it isn't the biggest deal here. They're projecting a bit smaller than 10nm, which is twice as small as next-generation flash drives that "projections show ... will reach its limit of 20nm by around 2012."
The biggest deal here seems to be power management.
What distinguishes graphene from other next-generation memories is the on-off power ratio - the amount of juice a circuit holds when it's on, as opposed to off. "It's huge - a million-to-one," said Tour. "Phase change memory, the other thing the industry is considering, runs at 10-to-1. That means the 'off' state holds, say, one-tenth the amount of electrical current than the 'on' state."
Current tends to leak from an "off" that's holding a charge. "That means in a 10-by-10 grid, 10 'offs' would leak enough to look like they were 'on.' With our method, it would take a million 'offs' in a line to look like 'on,'" he said. "So this is big. It allows us to make a much larger array."
Re:10 Atoms thick? (Score:1, Informative)
In this instance, it seems highly likely that they're referring to atoms of carbon as those are the atoms which compose the material involved.
Interesting, let me see.
Carbon [wikipedia.org]
They say an atom of Carbon is about 80 pm (picometers) in diameter. A picometer is one trillionth (1/1,000,000,000,000) of a metre.
The sheets were roughly 5 nanometers in diameter. Graphene is a form of carbon.
Google tells me that 5 nanometers = 5000 picometers. Is my math off? It seems like there is a factor of 10 between how thick this stuff is and how thick Carbon is.
Re:10 Atoms thick? (Score:4, Informative)
A carbon atom has a covalent radius of about 80pm, but the atoms in sheets of graphite aren't bonded together. I don't know how far apart the atoms would rest, but it's going to be much farther than they would bond.
Re:10 Atoms thick? (Score:5, Informative)
Google tells me that 5 nanometers = 5000 picometers. Is my math off? It seems like there is a factor of 10 between how thick this stuff is and how thick Carbon is.
One is talking about thickness, the other a diameter. The next paragraph of the article it says the sheets are a little under 1nm thick, and 10 C atoms would be around 800pm so that's a little under 1nm. The 5nm diameter would then be the other dimensions, these grown sheets are presumably circular. That dimension is important because that indicates how densely you could pack them on a surface.
Re:10 Atoms thick? (Score:4, Informative)
Not that much farther apart, since the article says that the sheets are less than 1nm thick.
The figure he's quoting is a diameter, which would be the 2d dimensions of the sheet on the surface of the silicon they grew it on. It's the 5nm diameter that makes this exciting as a memory technology since that is very dense.
Re:Finally.. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Finally.. (Score:5, Informative)
you should watch some mythbusters!
i think they managed 12 or 13 folds.
of course they started with a sheet of paper the size of a house and made the last fold with the help of heavy machinery!
eric
Re:10 Atoms thick? (Score:3, Informative)
The current things that are holding it back right now are probably mass distribution and reliability. Honestly though, it will take a lot more to convince me that we'll be using graphene-based memory chips someday.
Graphene/Graphite (Score:5, Informative)
Graphene has been studied extensively in the last few years. Carbon Nanotubes were on the rise (which are just rolled up sheets of single layer graphite) but the current difficulties to manipulate those to create devices staggered their advance. Graphene ( or Graphite for that matter) is a little easier to manage because it's like a 2 -D sheet and it can be laid/printed off a substrate more easily.
The current major problem of graphene is the lack of a sizable band-gap which is typically required for semiconductor modulation. We may see a breakthrough in the following years if people figure out a way to overcome this barrier.
Re:10 Atoms thick? (Score:3, Informative)
There are 10 atoms, so that's 800pm, which is close to 1nm yeah. :)
Which, uh, you figured out to much greater accuracy than I know how to in another post. Hehe.
Re:Finally.. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:10 Atoms thick? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Finally.. (Score:2, Informative)