A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was able to observe for the first time “electron vortices”, strange phenomena implying that electricity behaves like a fluid.
When electricity behaves like water
Like water, theelectricity is made up of tiny particles. Therefore, one would expect them both to flow similarly. But while the molecules of the first turn out to be massive enough to collide and converge, the electrons turn out to be much smaller, which means they are more influenced by their surroundings than by their counterparts.
However, it had been predicted that under ideal conditions (at temperatures near absolute zero and in pure, flawless materials) quantum effects should control their motion and allow them to flow like an electronic fluid of similar viscosity. to that of honey. Successfully exploiting this phenomenon would open the way to more efficient electronic devices where electricity would flow with less resistance.
In the context of work published in the journal Nature, MIT researchers have observed a clear sign of an electronic fluid: vortices of electrons, spotted in tungsten ditelluride crystals. ” It is one of the new quantum materials where electrons interact strongly and behave like quantum waves rather than particles “, Details Leonid Levitov, co-author of the new study.
Revealing experiences
After etching a thin channel, connected to circular chambers on either side, in the tungsten ditelluride, the team passed a current through it and measured the flow of electrons. Whereas in standard materials, such as gold, the electrons always flowed in the same general direction, in tungsten ditelluride these created small vortices in the circular chambers, reversing their direction, before returning to the channel major.
” The direction of flow has reversed from that of the central band “says Levitov. ” It’s the same physics as ordinary fluids, but happens with electrons at the nanoscale. »
According to the team, confirmation of the existence ofsuch a phenomenon paves the way for the development of much more efficient low-power electronic devices.
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