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You Can't Play Nano-billiards on a Bumpy Table


May 14, 2012

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There's nothing worse than a shonky pool table with an unseen groove or bump that sends your shot off course. Now, a new study has found that the same goes at the nano-scale, where the billiard balls are tiny electrons moving across a table made of the semiconductor gallium arsenide. An international team of physicists has shown that in this game of "semiconductor billiards," small bumps have an unexpectedly large effect on the paths that electrons follow.Full Story

Source
University of New South Wales

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