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DOE OSTI · 3002513

Next-generation electronics by co-design with chalcogenide materials

Abstract

As Moore’s law approaches its limits, chalcogenides offer a promising route to next-generation computing and sensing, thanks to their topological, magnetoelectric, excitonic, and spintronic properties. Yet the same traits that make them appealing, e.g., exotic properties at monolayer thickness, clean van der Waals interfaces, and strong many-body effects, also heighten sensitivity to fabrication, hindering translation into scalable devices. Progress is further constrained by fragmented knowledge across synthesis, processing, and integration, and by the lack of systematic links between fabrication parameters and performance metrics. This Perspective examines key obstacles in controlling chalcogenide heterostructures and stresses the need for an integrated co-design framework, uniting materials growth, processing, and device architecture to accelerate practical technologies.

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Mallick, Debarghya [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)], Ghosh, Sujoy [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS)] (ORCID:0000000328948971), Chen, An-Hsi [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)] (ORCID:0000000203399657), Liao, Jian [Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States)], Yoo, Jinkyoung [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States). Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT)], Lu, Qiangsheng [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)], Randolph, Steven J. [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS)], Retterer, Scott T. [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS)] (ORCID:0000000185341979), Eres, Gyula [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)] (ORCID:0000000326905214), Chen, Yong P. [Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States)], Rokhinson, Leonid P. [Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States)], Brahlek, Matthew [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)] (ORCID:0000000329000648), Moore II, Robert G. [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)] (ORCID:0000000216085411). 2025-10-09. Next-generation electronics by co-design with chalcogenide materials. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44306-025-00106-y

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36 MATERIALS SCIENCE