Using a new important circuit An on-chip processor, in a nanoelectronic circuit, an electron can be used to change the exact trajectory of another electron through their Coulomb interaction.
Quantum electronics promise major breakthroughs in highly sensitive measurements and quantum information processing. In nanoelectronic circuits, an electron can be used to change the exact trajectory of another electron through their Coulomb interaction.
The new circuit element has been demonstrated by three independent research groups, who have published their supporting findings in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. An electric current is a flow of charged particles.
In semiconductor devices, ballistic electrons travel at high speeds, making it difficult to align them individually. The controlled collision of individual electrons can provide the time resolution required for one electron to interrogate another.
The principle of operation of such an electron collider circuit is to beat the accelerator and run again at the right time. So, the challenge is to get the two electrons to interact with each other to make use of their interaction.
To achieve this, PTB scientists have developed a nanoscale collider and semiconductor chip. Such a device consists of two electron sources that can be triggered with picosecond precision. Single-electron detectors record any results from the collision.
A pair of electrons is produced from two different sources and placed on a converging path so that a collision can occur. If the sources are properly aligned, the interaction between the electron and the pair will determine the path the final signal will reach for each individual particle.
Despite the shortness of the encounter, the method developed at the University of Latvia and a grant from the Technical University of Braunschweig made it possible to eliminate the electron path from the research data and create a method to control the interaction of two electrons for future applications.
The demonstration of this time-resolved interaction not only shows that such flying electrons can be used as ultrafast sensors or switches, but also demonstrates the mechanism for creating quantum entanglement, which is fundamental the essentials of quantum computing.
Appearing in conjunction with consistent results from NEEL and NPL-led researchers, these results were published and introduced in the “Reports & Reviews” section of Nature Nanotechnology.
