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posted by CoolHand on Friday April 17 2015, @06:06AM   Printer-friendly
from the defective-diamonds-are-a-geeks-best-friend dept.

Scientists have found a way to study finer details of electron motion through a material using flawed diamonds:

researchers studied Johnson noise, otherwise known as white noise. In a metal, there is a sea of electrons that is free to travel around in constant motion—the fact that the temperature is above absolute zero is enough to keep electrons in motion. Because of this motion, the density of electrons varies slightly from place to place at any given time. These fluctuations create small attractive and repulsive forces that drive electrons to attempt to neutralize the fields. In doing so, they create new density fluctuations and fields in an endlessly repeating cycle.
...
How could you possibly observe this behavior in detail? Using impure diamonds, as it turns out. I've discussed nitrogen vacancies in diamond in the past. Essentially, a carbon atom likes to be surrounded by four other carbon atoms. Nitrogen, on the other hand, only likes to have three atoms around it. If nitrogen is substituted for one of the carbon atoms, it cruelly rejects one of its neighbors. The electron proffered by the carbon atom is left stranded between a cold and uninviting nitrogen atom and a carbon atom that would sooner be rid of it. The nature of these surroundings gives the electron a very well-defined energy level structure, creating what is called an NV- center.

The technique is thought to have practical relevance for the design and fabrication of semiconductor circuits.

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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday April 17 2015, @01:10PM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday April 17 2015, @01:10PM (#172001) Journal
    Who needs physicists? Just declare the electrons terrorists and NSA will spy on them professionally.
    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 17 2015, @01:16PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 17 2015, @01:16PM (#172004)

      If it allows them to create a quantum computer and try to break all existing encryption, they will try to do it anyway.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 18 2015, @12:57AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 18 2015, @12:57AM (#172251)

      It is pretty sad that even with articles like this, that should be free of political crap, Phoenix can't help but throw in words like "spying." Freud had much to say about a psyche like his. Dollars to donuts that if the linked article title was "Physicists observe . . ", it never would have caught his attention.

  • (Score: 1) by kramulous on Saturday April 18 2015, @12:28AM

    by kramulous (255) on Saturday April 18 2015, @12:28AM (#172232)

    I wonder if they find that the motion is not so random.