Obstinate electrons 'ignore' assumptions and follow another path
Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - 15:02
in Physics & Chemistry
(Phys.org)—It is possible to make gold wires so thin that there is not even enough room for electrons to pass one another. It's as if they were driving down a one-lane motorway, this has a major impact on traffic flow. But exactly what path do the electrons take? Measurements made by researchers at the University of Twente's MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology supplied the answer. Surprisingly, it was found that the electrons do not move through the nanowires themselves, but through the "troughs" between them. The researchers demonstrated this in a recent article published in the prestigious journal Nature Physics.