SSS 2011-09-27

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The shortest distance between two points may be a straight line, but try telling that to electrons: when current flows down a wire, these particles zig and zag, moving indirectly¹ from one end to the other. But now researchers have sped single electrons straight to their destinations using sound. The work is in the journal Nature. 

 

An electron's quantum state carries information, making it important for a viable² quantum computer. As the particle staggers down a wire, however, its state loses coherence—the electron "forgets" the information it carried. 

 

To make it travel more efficiently³, researchers blasted a short burst of sound at an electron trapped in an energy well. The sound wave "lifted" the electron, speeding it directly towards an empty well. Once it reached its destination, a sound burst from the opposite direction sent the electron back to its original location. 

 

This discovery is a step toward quantum computing⁴, which requires the controlled transfer of single electrons. But it could also have another application: electron ping-pong. Researchers have bounced an electron back and forth⁵ up to 60 times. Nice nano-rally.

 

Thanks for the minute. For Scientific American's 60-Second Science, I'm Sophie Bushwick.

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