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Nature Nanotechnology 3, 190–191 (1 April 2008) | doi:10.1038/nnano.2008.78

Nanotube devices: Watching electrons in real time

Bradley F. Habenicht & Oleg V. Prezhdo

Molecular components promise to revolutionize the electronics industry, but the vision of devices built from quantum wires and other nanostructures remains beyond present-day technology. Making such devices will require an extremely detailed knowledge of the properties of these components — such as the dynamics of charge carriers, electron spins and various excitations, on nanometre length scales and sub-picosecond timescales.