With the miniaturization of electronic circuits, the standard elements that are used in such circuits become smaller and smaller and quantum effects, which affect tiny elements such as atoms and molecules, become increasingly important. The simplest such device is a “quantum point contact,” a small bridge connecting two wider areas.
In a paper published in Nature several years ago, Prof. Yigal Meir from BGU's Department of Physics along with his postdoc Tomaz Rejec, predicted that these supposedly simple devices should exhibit much more complex behavior than originally expected. Specifically, a single electron may be trapped in the device, inhibiting electrical current through the point contact.
In a paper published recently in Nature, a collaborative effort between the theory group of Prof. Meir and the experimental group of Prof. C. van der Waal from Groningen, has confirmed this original prediction. Moreover, Meir and his student, Roi Levy, have shown theoretically that the longer the point contact is, the larger the number of electrons captured in the device, a prediction that has been confirmed by the experimental group.
According to Meir, “These localized electrons are expected to lower dramatically the electrical conductance of these devices, previously assumed to be almost perfect conductors.”
Beyond having a profound effect on the future of nano-electronics and perhaps quantum computing, this novel result demonstrates that such simple devices may be used as a new tool to explore non-trivial quantum effects in many-electron systems.
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