The electronics industry has relied on silicon technology for almost 40 years. Transistors have become smaller and faster, but they continue to use the same combination of materials - silicon as the semiconductor and silicon dioxide as the dielectric. However, the thicknesses of some transistor layers are already approaching their fundamental limits. A solution to some of the problems is to use a different material for the dielectric. The most promising of which are crystalline metal oxides known as perovskites. However perovskite compounds have proved difficult to grow on silicon substrates. Now, Rodney McKee and colleagues at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the US have developed a simple deposition method that can grow a high-quality layer of perovskite oxide on a clean silicon surface, without creating defects at the interface (Phys. Rev. Lett. 81 3017).