New plasma trick could unlock smaller, more powerful computer chips A clever chemical trick may help unlock the next era of tiny, high-performance computer chips by peeling away atoms with unprecedented precision. - Date: - June 17, 2026 - Source: - Princeton University - Summary: - A new technique could solve one of the biggest challenges in making future computer chips from ultrathin materials. Researchers found that coating molybdenum disulfide with oxygen or fluorine lets manufacturers remove just the top layer of atoms much more safely during plasma processing. The result is a cleaner, more controlled path toward smaller and more capable electronics. - Share: Silicon has powered computer chips for decades, but engineers are increasingly running into the material's physical limits. To keep making electronics smaller and more powerful, researchers are investigating ways to combine silicon with new ultrathin materials. One promising group of materials is known as transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD). Among the leading candidates is molybdenum disulfide, a material just three atoms thick, consisting of a layer of molybdenum between two layers of sulfur. Removing a Single Atomic Layer For future transistors that combine silicon and TMD materials, manufacturers may need to selectively remove atoms from only the upper sulfur layer while leaving the underlying layers untouched. One common way to remove surface atoms involves plasma, the energetic state of matter found in the Sun and other stars. Plasma research has also been a major focus at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) for the past 75 years. Under carefully controlled conditions, particles within a plasma can strike the surface of a TMD material and knock atoms loose. The challenge is achieving enough energy to remove sulfur atoms from the top layer without harming the molybdenum layer beneath. Because the difference between