{"id":421401,"date":"2026-04-28T09:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T09:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/421401\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T09:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T09:28:08","slug":"tuning-atomic-interfaces-for-future-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/421401\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuning atomic interfaces for future tech"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Seung Gyo Jeong (left) and senior author Bharat Jalan (right) have created a new path toward tunable catalysis and electronics in this latest paper. <\/p>\n

Credit\u00a9
\nKalie Pluchel, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
\n University of Minnesota researchers have found a way to \u201credesign\u201d metals by stabilising polarisation at the atomic level\u2014a feat previously thought impossible for metallic systems<\/p>\n

By manipulating a 4-nanometer-thick layer of ruthenium dioxide, they can tune its electronic properties with extreme precision, paving the way for faster, more efficient electronics and quantum devices.<\/p>\n

Published in Nature Communications, the study demonstrates that \u201cinterfacial polarisation\u201d\u2014<\/a>a property traditionally associated with insulators\u2014can be stabilised in metallic systems to tune their electronic properties with extreme precision.<\/p>\n

Breaking the rules of metal physics<\/p>\n

In the world of materials science, scientists often think of polarisation as something that belongs strictly to insulators or ferroelectrics\u2014not metals. However, Professor Bharat Jalan and his team showed that through careful interface design, polarisation can act as a \u201cknob\u201d to tune the work function of a metal.<\/p>\n

By adjusting the film thickness of metallic ruthenium dioxide (RuO2) at the nanometer scale, they were able to change its surface work function by more than 1 electron volt (eV).<\/p>\n

This transition is most effective when the metal layer<\/a> is approximately 4 nanometers thick, which is roughly the width of a single strand of DNA. At this specific thickness, the metal shifts from a \u201cstretched\u201d state caused by the material beneath it to a \u201crelaxed\u201d state.<\/p>\n

This physical shift in how atoms are packed together has a direct, measurable impact on how the metal handles electricity, proving that structural \u201cstrain\u201d can be used to engineer better electronic components.<\/p>\n

Impact on next-gen devices<\/p>\n

The ability to redesign metals at the atomic level opens an entirely new way of thinking about material control, with broad implications for several fields:<\/p>\n

Faster electronics:<\/p>\n

Manipulating the work function can lead to devices that are more energy-efficient and operate at higher speeds.<\/p>\n

Tunable catalysis:<\/p>\n

The discovery could help create more efficient chemical reactions by adjusting the electronic properties of metallic catalysts.<\/p>\n

Quantum technology:<\/p>\n

These findings provide new avenues for designing the interfaces required for advanced quantum devices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seung Gyo Jeong (left) and senior author Bharat Jalan (right) have created a new path toward tunable catalysis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[3749,61,60,82],"class_list":["post-421401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-chemistry","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}