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Obstinate Electrons ‘Ignore’ Assumptions And Follow Another Path
Parallel or perpendicular
In a recent paper in Nature Physics, German researchers stated that electrons show this behaviour in a direction parallel to the gold nanowires. Their research showed that the “motorway lanes” are located along the gold nanowire “ridges”. Japanese researchers responded by stating that the electrons actually move in a direction that is perpendicular to the alignment of the gold nanowires.
Atomic force microscopy image (17 nanometres by 15 nanometres) showing rows of nanowires on a germanium surface.
Credit: University of Twente
Researchers from the Physics of Interfaces and Nanomaterials group, which is headed by Prof. Harold Zandvliet, decided to test these ideas, by creating a spatial image of the electrons’ conduction path. So who was right? The Germans were right, to the extent that the electrons do move parallel to the nanowires. However, charge transport takes place in the “troughs” between the nanowires, not along the nanowires themselves. As a result, the study sheds surprising new light on the behaviour of charge carriers at the atomic scale.
Contacts and sources:
Full bibliographic informationThe article, entitled “Origin of the Au/Ge (001) metallic state” by R. Heimbuch, M. Kuzmin and H.J.W. Zandvliet was published as “correspondence” in Nature Physics 8.
2012-10-24 22:01:12
Source: http://nanopatentsandinnovations.blogspot.com/2012/10/obstinate-electrons-ignore-assumptions.html
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