(ORDO NEWS) — Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have been able to experimentally confirm the quantum effect previously predicted by theoretical physics. It turns the electric current into the movement of waves, not particles.
Wave motion is characteristic of a liquid, where large molecules push each other and can create different eddies regardless of the direction of the main flow. However, the electrons are too small and therefore more affected by the environment than each other.
Opening details
– In theory, an electric current can only be like a liquid under ideal conditions, such as absolute zero temperatures and materials of absolute purity.
– This is a very attractive target for engineers, since it opens up a new path to the creation of superconductors.
– The MIT research team was able to build a simplified model that, under normal conditions, can observe some of the effects of current-to-liquid conversion.
– The experiment is based on the study of the properties of a material called tungsten ditelluride , which is of high purity.
– The team engraved on a plate of this material a narrow channel for the movement of electrons, on the sides of which two round traps were made.
– In a similar construction made of gold, a very good conductor, the electrons flowed through the channel in one direction, and even after being trapped, continued to move in the same direction.
– And in a device made of tungsten ditelluride, the electrons in the traps began to twist and change the direction of their movement
The scientists explain that these were precisely the previously predicted “electronic vortices” in which the effects of the behavior of the liquid, and not the flow of particles, are observed.
And this means that now scientists can learn how to control electric current in a completely new way, opening the way to new technologies.
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