Combining materials science and electronics, this study reveals a new semiconductor concept with ultra-fast transport properties, suggesting applications in high-performance devices.
Combining switchable bandgaps with Dirac-like mobility remains a grand challenge for high-performance electronics. Here we propose a "3D semi-Dirac semiconductor" (3D-SDS) paradigm, integrating an intrinsic bandgap with gate-tunable, low-dimensional Dirac transport. By simulating uniaxial compression of layered C₆₀ solids, we predict a stable body-centered orthorhombic distorted C₆₀ solid (bco-dC₆₀) as a concrete realization, whose simulated XRD pattern aligns with unassigned experimental peaks from diamond-rich coatings. Its low-energy conduction bands form a broad and clean 3D semi-Dirac cone at the phase boundary between a trivial insulator and a topological nodal loop─well-captured by a two-band tight-binding model from a cluster-assembled hierarchical lattice. Furthermore, bco-dC₆₀ exhibits extreme electrical anisotropy with ∼95% axial polarization, enabling quasi-1D Dirac transport in the bulk. Generalizing these findings into a generalized k·p model and symmetry analysis, we establish the conceptual and material foundations for topological transistors, unveiling a cluster-assembly route to unite logic switching with ultrahigh-speed anisotropic transport.
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Yang et al. (2026) studied this question.
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