en.Wedoany.com Reported - A research team from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has developed a new structure that can resolve the "electrical bottleneck" in semiconductors, and for the first time directly confirmed that charge can flow continuously without interruption. This achievement, led by Professor Seungbum Hong of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, in collaboration with Professor Kibum Kang from the same department and a team led by Professor Sung Beom Cho from Sungkyunkwan University, is expected to become a key technology for enhancing the performance and energy efficiency of future devices such as AI semiconductors and ultra-low-power semiconductors.
In semiconductors, contact resistance generated at the interface between metal electrodes and the semiconductor degrades performance and increases power consumption. As semiconductors continue to shrink, the impact of contact resistance becomes greater, making it one of the most challenging technical bottlenecks for developing next-generation semiconductors. Unlike the conventional method of placing metal electrodes on top of the semiconductor, the research team continuously formed a semimetal region and a semiconductor region within a single two-dimensional material, creating a monolithic structure where the two are naturally connected within the same material. The team demonstrated for the first time that electric current can flow across the boundary without obstruction.
Specifically, the team achieved the continuous formation of semimetal and semiconductor regions in an atomic-thick two-dimensional material, platinum diselenide (PtSe₂) thin film. Using atomic force microscopy (AFM) to directly visualize charge transport within the film at the nanoscale, the team confirmed for the first time that when current flows from the semimetal region to the semiconductor region, the flow is naturally continuous, with no "electrical bottleneck" such as blocking or bending of the current path. This is the first experimental proof that a monolithic interface does not interfere with current flow.
Furthermore, the team verified device operation by applying an electric field to the semiconductor region, confirming that current flow can be stably controlled in the metal-semiconductor junction structure, demonstrating the potential of this structure for next-generation electronic devices. This research proposes a source technology that can significantly reduce contact resistance in next-generation semiconductor devices based on two-dimensional materials, and is expected to be widely applicable in fields such as AI semiconductors, ultra-low-power semiconductors, and next-generation logic semiconductors.
The co-first authors of this study are Yeongyu Kim, a doctoral student, and Dr. Minseung Gyeon from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at KAIST, along with Ji Hoon Hong, a doctoral student at Sungkyunkwan University. The research findings were published in the July 2026 issue of Matter, an international journal in the field of materials science. The research was supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Research Foundation of Korea through the "STEAM Research Program" and the "Nanomaterials Technology Development Program."
