How to Use germanium in a Sentence

germanium

noun
  • Scientists at the time, and to this day, aren’t sure why there wasn’t enough germanium 71.
    — Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, 11 July 2022
  • To test this idea, the researchers built a detector out of a crystal of germanium the size of a coffee cup.
    — George Musser, Science | AAAS, 7 Sep. 2020
  • Indeed, the United States is home to the world’s largest germanium mine.
    — Milton Ezrati, Forbes, 17 July 2023
  • The first are germanium pillars, which have a high refractive index.
    — Christopher McFadden, Interesting Engineering, 8 Mar. 2026
  • Germanene behaves like graphene but is made of a single layer of germanium atoms arranged in a slightly wavy sheet.
    — Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 28 Nov. 2025
  • The very cold devices, known as cryogenic detectors, are made with a crystalline absorber such as germanium.
    — Lisa Randall, Discover Magazine, 21 Feb. 2012
  • That is how closely the manganese sulfide curve matches the germanium selenide one, this reviewer said.
    — Kenneth Chang, New York Times, 26 July 2023
  • These developments could be the first steps in an industry trend to adopt the use of higher and higher proportions of germanium in the channel.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 29 Nov. 2016
  • The scientists counted the germanium atoms in a monthlong extraction process.
    — Quanta Magazine, 12 July 2024
  • Thanks to the nuances of electronic structure, holes move from a metal into germanium quite readily, but electrons don’t.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 29 Nov. 2016
  • For germanium, Canada’s Teck Resources is one of the world’s largest producers.
    — Laura He, CNN, 11 Oct. 2023
  • Of course, germanium is not the only option for tomorrow’s transistor channels.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 29 Nov. 2016
  • In a later step, the team etched away the remaining silicon germanium, leaving behind two silicon nanowires in each erstwhile fin.
    — Rachel Courtland, IEEE Spectrum, 28 Sep. 2016
  • Research already shows that perovskite cells based on nontoxic metals like tin or germanium are approaching the efficiency of the ones with lead.
    — Conor Prendergast, Discover Magazine, 14 Dec. 2020
  • Fortunately, there are multiple ways to build a germanium layer on a silicon wafer that can then be fashioned into channels.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 29 Nov. 2016
  • After all, germanium is a better semiconductor than silicon, but silicon still rules the roost.
    — Chris Lee, Ars Technica, 7 Dec. 2020
  • As late as the 1960s, electrical engineers were still dropping black wax onto blocks of germanium and etching away at it.
    — Virginia Heffernan, WIRED, 21 Mar. 2023
  • Gallium and germanium are used in semiconductors; the latter is also used in infrared tech, fiber optic cables, and solar cells.
    — Byandrew Nusca, Fortune, 4 Dec. 2024
  • Like Ye and his colleagues, the Singapore team began with a germanium-on-insulator wafer.
    — Richard Stevenson, IEEE Spectrum, 26 Jan. 2016
  • In August, China didn’t sell any germanium or gallium outside its borders.
    — Laura He, CNN, 11 Oct. 2023
  • Two years later, this effort helped fill a dangerous gap when China banned germanium exports to the United States.
    — Heidi Crebo-Rediker, Foreign Affairs, 7 May 2025
  • But replacing silicon in a transistor channel isn’t just a matter of slotting in a thin, high-quality layer of germanium.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 29 Nov. 2016
  • The road would provide mining access to an area with deposits of minerals including copper, cobalt, gallium and germanium.
    — Rachel Frazin, The Hill, 7 Oct. 2025
  • The researchers first grew a nanometer-thick layer of another high-k insulator, aluminum oxide, on the germanium channel.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 29 Nov. 2016
  • Gallium and germanium are byproducts of other ores – zinc for gallium, lignite coal for germanium.
    — Scott L. Montgomery, The Conversation, 11 Mar. 2025
  • For one thing, there is a need for additional wafer-scale experiments that can demonstrate transistors with high-quality germanium channels.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 29 Nov. 2016
  • Of course, germanium isn’t the only such high-mobility material.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 29 Nov. 2016
  • They are both used in the semiconductor industry to deposit thin films of silicon and germanium for advanced computing chips, among other uses.
    — Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Interesting Engineering, 8 Mar. 2026
  • But adding germanium to the channel—even initially mixed in with silicon—is a solution that will allow chipmakers to keep improving transistors in the near term.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 29 Nov. 2016
  • The idea was that the protons and electrons in germanium should emit the spontaneous radiation, which ultrasensitive detectors would pick up.
    — Philip Ball, Quanta Magazine, 20 Oct. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'germanium.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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