Nano-devices need flat surface

Scanning electron microscope image: the 'table' is the green region. The 'pockets' are narrowings that join to open green areas, the 'cushion' is the grey trench that defines the device. White scale bar is 500 nanometres. Image: UNSW There’s nothing worse than a shonky pool table with an unseen groove or bump that sends your shot off course: a new study has found that the same goes at the nano-scale, where the “billiard balls” are tiny electrons moving across a “table” made of the semiconductor gallium arsenide.These tiny billiard tables are of interest towards the development of future computing technologies. In a research paper titled “The Impact of Small-Angle Scattering on Ballistic Transport in Quantum Dots”, an international team of physicists has shown that in this game of “semiconductor billiards”, small bumps have an unexpectedly large effect on the paths that electrons follow.Better still, the team has come up with a major...

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