Non usual properties of quantum electronic circuits
A ENS/CNRS/CEA-Saclay (SPEC) team of the Laboratoire Pierre Aigrain highlight for the first time the remarkable behavior of an electronic circuit when its miniaturization is led to the extreme. These results are published in Science. The researchers showed that the fundamental laws of electricity, established since 1845, cannot describe the properties of an electronic circuit any more when its dimensions reach the nanometric scale. These studies confirm ten years old theoretical predictions of Markus Büttiker of the University of Geneva.
"What is the complex impedance of a fully coherent quantum resistance-capacitance (RC) circuit at gigahertz frequencies in which a resistor and a capacitor are connected in series? While Kirchhoff's laws predict addition of capacitor and resistor impedances, we report on observation of a different behavior. The resistance, here associated with charge relaxation, differs from the usual transport resistance given by the Landauer formula. In particular, for a single-mode conductor, the charge-relaxation resistance is half the resistance quantum, regardless of the mode transmission. The new mesoscopic effect reported here is relevant for the dynamical regime of all quantum devices".
More: CEA-CNRS press release.
Associated publication: Violation of Kirchhoff's Laws for a Coherent RC Circuit, J. Gabelli et al., ScienceXpress (2006) 1126940.
The Nano-electronics team of DRECAM/SPEC at CEA and équipe Mesoscopique Physics-Transport team of LPA .
C. Glattli, 2006-08-07 00:00:00
