Theory of Condensed Matter, Cavendish Laboratory, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0HE, U.K.
Modern electronic devices are increasingly being designed by combining materials with different electronic properties. The conventional semiconductor industry has achieved this by building heterostructures, such as quantum wells and superlattices, from materials with the same crystal structure but different constituent atoms. We propose that boron nitride polymers, with the same structure as organic polymers, will allow the same idea to be applied to polymer materials, already recognized as a cheap alternative to inorganic semiconductors. We demonstrate the similarity between organic polymers and their boron nitride analogues and then explore the potential innovations, including band gap tuning, that these new polymers could bring to organic polymer research.
PACS numbers: 71.20.Rv, 61.82.Pv, 71.15.Mb