Move aside, electrons; it's time to make way for the trion.
A research team led by physicists at the University of California, Riverside, has observed, characterized, and controlled dark trions in a semiconductor—ultraclean single-layer tungsten diselenide (WSe2)—a feat that could increase the capacity and alter the form of information transmission.
In a semiconductor, such as WSe2, a trion is a quantum bound state of three charged particles. A negative trion contains two electrons and one hole; a positive trion contains two holes and one electron. A hole is the vacancy of an electron in a semiconductor, which behaves like a positively charged particle. Because a trion contains three interacting particles, it can carry much more information than a single electron.
Most electronics today use individual electrons to conduct electricity and transmit information. As trions carry net electric charge, their motion can be controlled by an electric field. Trions can, therefore, also be used as information carriers. Compared to individual electrons, trions have controllable spin and momentum indices and a rich internal structure, which can be used to encode information.
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