Physicists Create Five-lane Superhighway for Electrons

May 13, 2024

MIT physicists and colleagues have created a five-lane superhighway for electrons that could allow ultra-efficient electronics and more. The work is one of several important discoveries by the same team over the last year involving a material that is essentially a unique form of pencil lead.

“This discovery has direct implications for low-power electronic devices because no energy is lost during the propagation of electrons, which is not the case in regular materials where the electrons are scattered,” says Long Ju, an assistant professor in the MIT Department of Physics and corresponding author of the Science paper.

The phenomenon is akin to cars traveling down an open turnpike as opposed to those moving through neighborhoods. The neighborhood cars can be stopped or slowed by other drivers making abrupt stops or U-turns that disrupt an otherwise smooth commute.

Complete article from the MIT Materials Research Laboratory.