In a carefully controlled environment, physicists have managed to stabilize a rare and previously short-lived phase of matter by using a simple method of rapid heating and cooling. This breakthrough ...

Conductors have a band gap close to 0 eV (electronvolts), semiconductors range approximately between 1 and 9 eV, and anything above is usually considered an insulator.

A rule-breaking, colorful silicone that could conduct electricity. Previously only thought to be insulating, a shift in the ...

Researchers have discovered a material that can switch between an insulator and a conductor freely, even at room temperature. The material, a compound of manganese and sulfide (MnS2), starts off ...

Semiconductors are unique because their band gap lies somewhere between that of an insulator and a conductor. As a result, semiconducting materials can function ordinarily as insulators, but then ...

Revise conductors, semiconductors, insulators and p-n junctions for your Higher physics exam with Bitesize Scotland interactive practice quizzes covering feedback and common errors.

So the next time someone asks you WTF a semiconductor is, you now have the answer. Semiconductors power up our tech-driven world, and without them we’d be in a dark, analog era.

On the periodic table, semiconductors (also known as metalloids) crop up along a diagonal line between conductors and insulators. Noble gases such as helium and neon are poor conductors of ...