Important material properties can be explained at the level of quantum physics - for example, whether a material conducts electricity or not. Analysing such quantum states has now revealed that there ...

Among other things, this explains the difference between electrically conductive metals and non-conductive insulators ... technique is routinely used in semiconductor production.

By comparison, extrinsic semiconductors are composite ... crop up along a diagonal line between conductors and insulators. Noble gases such as helium and neon are poor conductors of electricity ...