Scientists from the University of Pittsburgh have discovered a new electronic state of matter that could lead to quantum computing and even the ability for quantum teleportation.
The study published on Feb. 14th in Science titled “Pascal conductance series in ballistic one-dimensional LaAIO3/SrTiO3 channels,” where electrons travel without scattering in groups of two or more versus individually, in one-dimensional conducting systems. The electrons are able to flow without bouncing, losing energy, or heating up.
Distinguished Professor of Condensed Matter Physics, Jeremy Levy co-authored the paper with Patrick Irvin a research associate professor.
Levy explains the study findings:
Normally, electrons in semiconductors or metals move and scatter, and eventually drift in one direction if you apply a voltage. But in ballistic conductors, the electrons move more like cars on a highway. The advantage of that is they don’t give off heat and may be used in ways that are quite different from ordinary electronics. Researchers before us have succeeded in creating this kind of ballistic conductor.
The discovery we made shows that when electrons can be made to attract one another, they can form bunches of two, three, four and five electrons that literally behave like new types of particles, new forms of electronic matter.
For those interested, this video by Jeremy Levy helps break down and explain this new discovery.
Levy said that recognizing the ballistic conductors matched a sequence within Pascal’s triangle that helped lead to this discovery. Ballistic conductors can be thought of like lanes on a highway in which single electrons travel along, without changing lanes.
If you look along [with] different directions of Pascal’s Triangle you can see different number patterns and one of the patterns was one, three, six, 10, 15, 21. This is a sequence we noticed in our data, so it became a challenging clue as to what was actually going on. The discovery took us some time to understand but it was because we initially did not realize we were looking at particles made up of one electron, two electrons, three electrons and so forth. If you combine all this together you get the sequence of 1,3,6,10.
Levy is excited about this discovery because this will help the overall advancement of quantum physics. These new electronic matter particles have properties related to quantum entanglement that can be used in quantum computing and quantum redistribution.
“This research falls within a larger effort here in Pittsburgh to develop new science and technologies related to the second quantum revolution,” said Levy who is also the director of the Pittsburgh Quantum Institute.
“In the first quantum revolution people discovered the world around them was governed fundamentally by laws of quantum physics. That discovery led to an understanding of the periodic table, how materials behave and helped in the development of transistors, computers, MRI scanners, and information technology.
Now in the 21st century, we’re looking at all the strange predictions of quantum physics and turning them around and using them. When you talk about applications, we’re thinking about quantum computing, quantum teleportation, quantum communications, quantum sensing—ideas that use properties of the quantum nature of matter that were ignored before.
The days of Star Trek are fast approaching!
