Certain semimetals can switch electricity on and off instantly by using the shape of electron waves.
April 20, 2026
Original Paper
Ultrafast Current Switching from Quantum Geometry in Semimetals
arXiv · 2604.15924
The Takeaway
Modern computer chips are limited by how fast electrons can physically move through a material. These semimetals bypass this limit by using quantum geometry to generate a current the moment an electric field is applied. This process is so fast that it outperforms even graphene, which was long considered the ultimate material for speed. The switching does not rely on pushing charges from one side to the other, but on the intrinsic shape of the quantum state. This discovery could lead to processors that operate at frequencies far beyond anything possible today. It changes the physical foundation of how we build high-speed electronics.
From the abstract
Technological progress towards next-generation electronics critically relies on achieving faster switching with reduced energy consumption. Because device operation speeds are fundamentally constrained by the intrinsic properties of constituent materials, identifying systems with inherently superior switching capabilities is essential. Here, we propose that semimetallic systems characterized by non-trivial quantum geometry, including quadratic band-touching semimetals and singular flat bands, ca