To further reduce the size of electronic devices, while also improving their performance and energy efficiency, electronics engineers have been trying to identify alternative materials that outperform silicon and other conventional semiconductors. Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors, materials that are just a few atoms thick and have a tunable electrical conductivity, are among the most promising candidates for the fabrication of smaller and better performing devices.

Past studies showed that these materials could be used to fabricate miniaturized transistors, electronic components that amplify or switch electrical signals, particularly field-effect transistors (FETs). These are transistors that control the flow of electrical current using an electric field.

To reliably operate, however, FETs also need to integrate an insulating layer that separates the so-called gate electrode (i.e., the terminal regulating the flow of current) from the channel (i.e., the pathway through which electrical current flows). To enable greater control over the gate, this insulating layer, known as a gate dielectric, should have a high dielectric constant (κ), or in other words, it should effectively store electrical energy.

Deep beneath the Swiss-French border, the Large Hadron Collider unleashes staggering amounts of energy and radiation—enough to fry most electronics. Enter a team of Columbia engineers, who built ultra-rugged, radiation-resistant chips that now play a pivotal role in capturing data from subatomic particle collisions. These custom-designed ADCs not only survive the hostile environment inside CERN but also help filter and digitize the most critical collision events, enabling physicists to study elusive phenomena like the Higgs boson.