Next electron, please ...

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Ever since Robert Millikan performed his famous oil droplet experiments in 1909 we have known that electric charge is quantised and that this unit of charge is carried by a number of particles in nature – one such particle being the electron. Millikan was plagued by his inability to control the number of electrons on a droplet and only knew that a random, integer, number of electrons were present. However, recent technological progress in the fabrication of small-scale (<100 nm) solid state structures has made possible devices within which electrons can be manipulated one by one – simply by turning a dial on an experiment. The resulting phenomena, found in metallic, semiconducting, and semi-insulating materials, have boosted interest in the physics that lies between the macroscopic and the microscopic worlds – mesoscopic physics. And the strong effects that follow from the control of single electrons in such small devices have opened up opportunities for applications in both analogue and digital systems.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: