Important step towards quantum computing: Metals at atomic scale
Monday, March 2, 2015 - 11:00
in Physics & Chemistry
German scientists from RWTH Aachen, Research Center Jülich, TU Dresden and of the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden report that the current flow on the surface of a topological insulator is channeled along tiny paths, which have been theoretically calculated and experimentally observed. Their work has been published in the issue from March 2, 2015 of the journal Nature Physics. The team shows for Bismuth-Rhodium-Iodine that these channels are tied to one dimensional surface features and run along steps formed by the edges of atomic layers. Scanning tunneling spectroscopy reveals the electron channels to be continuous in both energy and space and less than one nanometer wide.