A leading contender to replace silicon as the basis for computing has made another step forward.

Transistors one atom thick and ten atoms wide have been made by UK researchers. They were carved from graphene, predicted by some to one day oust silicon as the basis of future computing.

For 40 years computing has been dominated by a rule of thumb named Moore's law, which predicts that the number of transistors on a chip will double roughly every two years.

Yet silicon, the material that has so far been used to keep up with Moore's law cannot form stable structures below 10 nanometres in size. And today's newest chips already have features just 45 nm across. The hunt is on for a replacement for silicon.

Graphene, a material made from flat sheets of carbon in a honeycomb arrangement is a leading contender. A team at the University of Manchester, UK, have now used it to make some of the smallest transistors ever. Devices only 1 nm across that contain just a few carbons rings.

Previous graphene transistors were significantly bigger – ribbons 10 nm across and many times longer.