Like fish on waves: electrons go surfing
Physicists at the RUB, working in collaboration with researchers from Grenoble and Tokyo, have succeeded in taking a decisive step towards the development of more powerful computers. They were able to define two little quantum dots (QDs), occupied with electrons, in a semiconductor and to select a single electron from one of them using a sound wave, and then to transport it to the neighbouring QD. A single electron "surfs" thus from one quantum dot to the next like a fish on a wave. Such manipulation of a single electron will in the future also enable the combination of considerably more complex quantum bits instead of classical bits ("0" and "1" states). The researchers have reported their results in Nature, one of the highest-impact-factor international scientific journals.