Topological insulators and how they might change the world
Professor Michael S. Fuhrer
Director, ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low Energy Electronics Technologies
School of Physics and Astronomy
Monash University
Michael Fuhrer is a physicist at Monash University. Michael completed his BSc in Physics at the University of Texas in 1990 and his PhD at the University of California at Berkeley in 1998. Michael is an experimental physicist who works to uncover the unusual electronic properties of new materials. Michael directs the ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low Energy Electronics Technologies (FLEET) which will develop new kinds of transistors which can reduce the electrical power consumed in computing, based on new materials called topological insulators.
Scientists once believed there were two types of materials: metals which conduct electricity, and insulators which don’t. Recently they discovered a third: Topological insulators, with insulating interiors but conducting edges or surfaces, a discovery recognised by the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics. Under the right conditions topological insulators can even conduct electricity perfectly, without resistance. New types of transistors based on topological insulators have the potential to significantly reduce the power used in computing and extend the advances of the Information Age well into the future.