Researchers at NIST have found a way to control the quantum property of electron with a magnetic switch in the circular graphene resonator. This allows the scientists to regulate the twirling of an electron in the graphene sub-atomic particles.
A phenomenon of the strange quantum property of electron makes the movement of the electron to be unpredictable. Electron and sub-atomic particles follow the rule of quantum theory, where they always move around a closed path. This makes the effort to control the quantum property of the electron and sub-atomic particles to be difficult.
A physicist and project leader in the Electron Physics Group in the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (CNST) at the National Institute of Standard and Technology, Joseph A. Stroscio has been studying the quantum property of electron for years. Recently, he and his colleagues from the have found a way to regulate the movement of the sub-atomic particles, according to the official announcement of NIST.
Stroscio and his colleagues have published their research to control the quantum property of electron in the May 26, 2017, issue of Science Magazine. They have found that the quantum property of electron can be restrained using the magnetic field.
In their research to find a way of regulating the quantum property of the electron, Stroscio studied the electrons corralled in special orbits within a graphene with a nanometer-sized region. The corralled electron orbited the center of graphene similar to the property of electron to orbit the center of the atom.
The orbiting electron retains exactly the same physical property after traveling the complete circuit of graphene. However, when a magnetic field was applied to the critical value, it acted as a switch that altered the shape of the orbit. As a result, the shape of the orbits is altered and the electrons possess the different physical property after completing its circuit.
The researchers at the CNST NanoFab used the geometric property called the Berry phase to control the quantum property of electron. The implication of this research can benefit the future electronic device and computer. Watch the insight into the CNST NanoFab below:
