1D Topological Systems for Next-Generation Electronics

Abstract: Topological nanowires, topological materials confined in one dimension (1D), hold great promise for robust and scalable quantum computing and low-dissipation interconnect applications, which will transform current computing technologies. To do so, research in topological nanowires must continue to improve their synthesis and properties. 

In this talk, I will discuss my group’s efforts to develop a high throughput and precision synthesis method to fabricate 1D topological systems. We employ recently developed thermomechanical nanomolding to extrude single crystal nanowires of topological materials with controlled diameter. I will highlight our transport studies on topological semimetal nanowires for their potential application as extremely scaled, low-resistance interconnects. We demonstrate that the resistivity scaling of topological semimetal nanowires is superior to those of the state-of-the-art Cu interconnects and Cu alternative metals, presenting them as viable candidates for the low-resistance interconnect applications.

Bio: Judy J. Cha is a professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Cornell University. She received her Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Cornell University in 2009, working in Prof. David A. Muller’s lab. She did her post-doctoral research in Prof. Yi Cui’s group in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University. In 2013, she joined the faculty at Yale University in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science, where she spent 9 years before joining the faculty at Cornell in 2022. Research in her lab focuses on synthesis and transport properties of topological and 2D nanomaterials and their phase transformations in order to understand the structure-electronic property relationships of these quantum nanomaterials. Her work on topological and 2D nanomaterials started in 2010 as a postdoc at Stanford university. Since then, her group has expanded the class of topological nanomaterials under study, with a particular focus on achieving nanowires of topological superconductors and topological metals, which have implications for robust quantum computing and low-dissipation electronics.