The discovery of a superhard P-type transparent semiconductor: Al2.69B50

Xu Zheng; Dayu Yan; Changjiang Yi; Jinlong Zhu; Qinghua Zhang; Junyi Zhai; Teng Ma; Pinwen Zhu; Hui Li; Lin Gu; Yusheng Zhao; Yugui Yao; Youguo Shi; Xiaohui Yu; Changqing Jin

doi:10.1039/D1MH00975C

The discovery of a superhard P-type transparent semiconductor: Al_2.69B₅₀†

Xu Zheng,

‡^ab Dayu Yan,‡^a Changjiang Yi,‡^a Jinlong Zhu,^c Qinghua Zhang,^a Junyi Zhai,

^d Teng Ma,^e Pinwen Zhu,^e Hui Li,

^a Lin Gu,

^af Yusheng Zhao,

^c Yugui Yao,^b Youguo Shi,*^a Xiaohui Yu*^a and Changqing Jin*^a

Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

^a Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics and Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
E-mail: yuxh@iphy.ac.cn, jin@iphy.ac.cn, ygshi@iphy.ac.cn

^b School of Physics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China

^c Department of Physics, South University of Science and Technology of China, Shenzhen 518055, China

^d Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100083, China

^e State Key Laboratory of Superhard Materials, College of Physics, Changchun 130012, Jilin University, China

^f Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing 100190, China

Abstract

Superhard semiconductors have been long sought after for electronic device applications enduring extreme conditions, such as astronautics, due to their intrinsic toughness, high thermal and chemical stability. Here, we report the superhard p-type semiconductor Al_2.69B₅₀ single crystal with the determined Vickers hardness of ∼40.5 GPa under the load of 0.49 N, which is one of the hardest semiconductor compounds that have been ever found. With the direct band gap of 2.3 eV, Al_2.69B₅₀ exhibits excellent optical transmittance (>90%), covering the visible range from 459 nm to 760 nm and part of the infrared range, and also shows the high intensity of the photon emission in the visible light. Al_2.69B₅₀ is very stable, thermally and chemically, with an ultra-low density of ∼2.52 g cm⁻³, allowing for further extension of its applications. Such an assembly of various excellent properties within one material has great implication for high power electronic design and applications.

Materials Horizons

The discovery of a superhard P-type transparent semiconductor: Al_2.69B₅₀†

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