Electrons at the frontier could offer ‘perfect energy’, study says

According to a new study published in the scientific journal Nature Physics, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Managed to use an array of electrons to understand how it might be possible to transmit ‘perfect energy’. They used a cloud of ultracold sodium atoms to create a flow that moved in circles without resistance and in a single direction.

In their statement, scientists explained that electrons are considered ‘free agents’ because they can move in any direction and when they encounter an obstacle, the particles disperse randomly. But there are also some exotic types of materials that allow electrons to flow quickly and in one direction, without friction.

Because electrons often flow around the edges of these materials, scientists call this phenomenon ‘edge state’. Besides, For the first time, they were able to capture images of electrons flowing through a cloud of ultracold atoms. The idea is to use this technique to understand how to transmit data and energy super-efficiently.

“You can imagine making small parts of a suitable material and placing them inside future devices so that electrons can move along the edges and between different parts of your circuit without any loss. But I would like to emphasize that for us the beauty lies within the materials, which are absolutely incredible but often you’re seeing with your own eyes physics that is hidden and not directly visible,” said study co-author Richard Fletcher, an MIT assistant professor.

‘Edge state’ of electrons

The ‘edge state’ was first investigated in the mid-1980s when a group of physicists were studying the quantum Hall effect. At that time, they observed that the currents sent through the material were limited to the edges, but they could not conduct appropriate experiments. So the scientists in the new study recreated this idea in a larger system that could be more easily observed.

To perform the experiment, the researchers used approximately one million sodium atoms cooled to ultracold temperatures in a laser-controlled trap. When the trap pulled the atoms in, centrifugal force tried to push them out, but both forces balanced each other, creating behavior similar to that of electrons in a magnetic field.

This flow shows that the configuration of atoms can be an excellent option for studying electrons in the ‘edge state’. Theoretically, the atoms should have collided with obstacles, but they would slide frictionlessly along the edges of the material.

“You can imagine that these are like marbles that you spin very quickly in a bowl and they keep going around the edge of the bowl. There is no friction or slowing down, no atoms leaking or scattering into the rest of the system. There’s just a nice, consistent flow“, said Martin Zwierlein, another co-author of the study.

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