Physicists introduce novel mechanism for electron optics in solid-​state systems

Electrons can interfere in the same manner as water, acoustical or light waves do. When exploited in solid-state materials, such effects promise novel functionality for electronic devices, in which elements such as interferometers, lenses or collimators could be integrated for controlling electrons at the scale of mirco- and nanometres. However, so far such effects have been demonstrated mainly in one-dimensional devices, for example in nanotubes, or under specific conditions in two-dimensional graphene devices. Writing in Physical Review X, a collaboration including the Department of Physics groups of Klaus Ensslin, Thomas Ihn and Werner Wegscheider in the Laboratory for Solid State Physics and Oded Zilberberg at the Institute of Theoretical Physics, now introduces a novel general scenario for realizing electron optics in two dimensions.