Superfast Organic Materials

Engineers at the University of Utah have demonstrated the feasibility of building topological insulators using organic materials – a discovery that will likely open up a whole new field of materials research and could eventually make quantum computers a reality.

The material, which resembles chicken wire (at the molecular level) acts as an insulator inside but conducts electricity on its edges because of the unique behavior of a special type of electrons known as Dirac fermions. As they move along the surface, fermions act as weightless photons, conducting electricity at the speed of light. But when they move inside the materials, they screech to a halt. Because they also possess a property known as “spin” they can be used to store information. And unlike traditional electronics, heat dissipation is not an issue.

Although inorganic topological insulators have been studied for several years, this is the first demonstration of organic or molecular versions of these unique materials. Just as organic materials led to lower cost LEDs and solar cells, this discovery could make topological insulators more affordable and easier to produce.