Is Rhenium the Semiconductor Material of the Future?

When one hears the word “semiconductor,” one usually thinks of either silicon or the technology metals gallium and germanium, which have been regulated by China since August. The semiconductor material Re6Se8Cl2, discovered by the team around scientist Milan E. Delor, relies instead on rhenium, selenium, and chlorine. More or less by chance, the researchers discovered that electrons moved much slower in the material than in conventional semiconductors. What was interesting was that they still reached their destination faster, as they showed hardly any scattering, unlike in silicon semiconductors. It’s a bit like the race in the fairy tale “The Hare and the Hedgehog”: While the (silicon) hare jumps around wildly and makes sudden turns, the much slower but more determined (rhenium) hedgehog always seems to be a step ahead.

The new semiconductor is not yet being installed in computers. However, researchers see its immense potential for the future. For example, a gigahertz processor using this material could achieve hundreds of gigahertz and perhaps even a terahertz in transistor switching speed. Complex datasets, which previously would have taken several days to analyze, would only take a few minutes with a terahertz. Encoding a high-resolution video, a process that can take several hours on older computers, would then be possible in just a few minutes or even seconds.

Rhenium does not come from China, so its government cannot impose export controls on it. Nevertheless, its price has been rising since the recovery of air traffic. (We reported)

With rhenium-based semiconductors, the West could become more independent from China, but would also have to expect higher prices. For this reason, rhenium semiconductors are not suitable for common PCs, but would be indispensable for key technologies, such as in the military sector.