Scientists at Rice University believe they are well on the way to making charge coupled devices (CCDs) for imaging that are only atoms thick.
The sythetic materials using metal chalcogenide compounds could lead to the superthin devices with molybdenum disulphide the favourite for its light detecting property. Copper indium selenide (CIS) is also one of the front runners.
Researcher Sidong Lei synthesised CIS, which is a single layer matrix of copper, indium and selenium atoms and built a three pixel CCD prototype to capture an image.
Sidong Lei, a graduate student at Rice, believes the materials could well be an important component in the future. “Traditional CCDs are thick and rigid and it would not make sense to combine them with 2D elements.” The CCDs will be ultrathin, transparent and flexible.
Senior faculty fellow Robert Vajtai agreed and said that none are as efficient as this [CIS] material.
CIS could be incorporaed into curved configurations to match lenses and have applications in a number of fields including bio-medics as well as opto electronics.
