Quantum mirage

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In physics, a quantum mirage is a peculiar result in quantum chaos. Every system of quantum dynamical billiards will exhibit an effect called scarring, where the quantum probability density shows traces of the paths a classical billiard ball would take. For an elliptical arena, the scarring is particularly pronounced at the foci, as this is the region where many classical trajectories converge. The scars at the foci are colloquially referred to as the "quantum mirage".

The quantum mirage was first experimentally observed by Hari Manoharan, Christopher Lutz and Donald Eigler at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California in 2000. The effect is quite remarkable but in general agreement with prior work on the quantum mechanics of dynamical billiards in elliptical arenas.

Quantum corral

The Well (Quantum Corral) (2009) by Julian Voss-Andreae. Created using the 1993 experimental data by Lutz et al., the gilded sculpture was pictured in a 2009 review of the art exhibition "Quantum Objects" in the journal Nature.[1]

The mirage occurs at the foci of a quantum corral, a ring of atoms arranged in an arbitrary shape on a substrate. The quantum corral was demonstrated in 1993 by Lutz, Eigler, and Crommie[2] using an ellipitical ring of iron atoms on a copper surface using the tip of a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope to manipulate individual atoms.[3] The ferromagnetic iron atoms reflected the surface electrons of the copper inside the ring into a wave pattern, as predicted by the theory of quantum mechanics.

The size and shape of the corral determine its quantum states, including the energy and distribution of the electrons. To make conditions suitable for the mirage the team at Almaden chose a configuration of the corral which concentrated the electrons at the foci of the ellipse.

When scientists placed a magnetic cobalt atom at one focus of the corral, a mirage of the atom appeared at the other focus. Specifically the same electronic properties were present in the electrons surrounding both foci, even though the cobalt atom was only present at one focus.

Applications

IBM scientists are hoping to use quantum mirages to construct atomic scale processors in the future.

References

  1. ↑ Ball, Philip (26 November 2009). "Quantum objects on show". Nature 462 (7272): 416. Bibcode:2009Natur.462..416B. doi:10.1038/462416a. Retrieved 2009-01-12. 
  2. ↑ Crommie MF, Lutz CP, Eigler DM (8 October 1993). "Confinement of electrons to quantum corrals on a metal surface.". Science 262 (5131): 218–20. Bibcode:1991Sci...254.1319S. doi:10.1126/science.254.5036.1319. Retrieved 2011-11-08. 
  3. ↑ Rogers, Ben (2011). Nanotechnology: Understanding Small Systems. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. p. 9. 
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