Making new materials with micro-explosions »

Professor Jim Williams (L), Professor Andrei Rode and Associate Professor Jodie Bradby with the electron diffraction pattern of one of their new silicon phases. Image: Stuart Hay, ANU Scientists have made exotic new materials by creating laser-induced micro-explosions in silicon, the common computer chip material. The new technique could lead to the simple creation and manufacture of superconductors or high-efficiency solar cells and light sensors, said leader of the research, Professor Andrei Rode, from The Australian National University (ANU). "We've created two entirely new crystal arrangements, or phases, in silicon and seen indications of potentially four more," said Professor Rode, a laser physicist at the ANU Research School of Physics and Engineering (RSPE). "Theory predicts these materials could have very interesting electronic properties, such as an altered band gap, and possibly superconductivity if properly doped." By focusing lasers onto silicon buried under a clear layer of silicon dioxide, the group have perfected a way to reliably blast tiny cavities in the solid silicon. This creates extremely high pressure around the explosion site and forms the new phases. The phases have complex structures, which took the team of physicists from ANU and University College London a year to understand.