Technology goes forward, daily giving new inventions and discoveries that shape the future. Many of these innovations would later on the tech of tomorrow, which brings new experiences to people. A new experiment might see the future of tech beyond what has been achieved today.
Researchers from Princeton University and the University of Texas-Austin have made an experiment where they saw electrons move on the same elliptical path on a bismuth crystal surface, according to Science Daily. With this movement it has entered a quantum fluid state.
The experiment has visualized electrons as they chose what orbits to take in an unusual shape. It is also the first time that electron orbits on a magnetic field have been visualized. The experiment has much importance since silicon is reaching its full capacity in processing information. There is a need to find the next material for use in computer chips and processors.
To view the electrons, the Princeton team used a scanning tunneling microscope. With that they viewed the bismuth crystal while in low temperatures. The microscope has been fitted with an electrically charged needle in order to detect the electrons.
Bismuth has been used since it has few electrons, as Phys Org notes. With few electrons in it, it makes it easier then to track them as they move on a high magnetic field. Bismuth is relatively pure though the one used in the experiment has some defects. The bismuth has been grown in the lab by Huiwen Ji from Princeton's Department of Chemistry and Robert Cava, who is a Princeton Russell Wellman Moore Professor of Chemistry.
Research has been led by Ali Yadzani, the Class of 1909 Professor of Physics at Princeton. The experiment has been based theories that have been predicted two decades earlier, on a work made by Princeton Professor of Physics Shivaji Sondhi as well as others.
Electrons in bismuth crystal normally move from atom to atom. With a magnetic field though the electrons began to curve in an orbit. What surprised the researchers was that their movements lined up in the same direction instead of differently shaped orbits. They reasoned that the magnetic field has caused the electrons to behave that way.
"People have been looking at these states in a bunch of different contexts and this experiment represents a new way of observing them," remarked Allan McDonald, Professor of Physics at the University of Texas-Austin. He has provided the theoretical understanding of the study along with graduate student Fengcheng Wu.
A new innovation might also come on apparel with moving designs on clothing.
