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News and Views
Nature 453, 866 (12 June 2008) | doi:10.1038/453866a; Published online 11 June 2008
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Condensed-matter physics: Paralysed by disorder
Daniel A. Steck1
Abstract
In a disordered medium, a quantum particle can literally stop itself in its tracks. This localization phenomenon can be observed directly using the coldest known form of matter, caught in a laser trap.
Those familiar with the game of pachinko — in which, in its simplest incarnation, little balls bounce and cascade chaotically through a regular lattice of pin-like obstacles — have some idea of what a current of electrons goes through when it flows through the ordered crystal lattice of a metallic wire. But now imagine that you are playing quantum pachinko.
- Daniel A. Steck is in the Oregon Center for Optics and the Department of Physics, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403-1274, USA.
Email: dsteck@uoregon.edu
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