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Quantum physics

Strongly correlated transport

Nature volume 491, pages 681–682 (2012)Cite this article

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The field-effect transistor underlies microprocessor technology. A version of it has been demonstrated that tunes particle transport from an incoherent regime to a strongly correlated superfluid one. See Letter p.736

The quantum transport of charge is a prominent feature in emerging models for future technologies, from microprocessors in computing to radical ideas for renewable-energy materials. In general, transport describes the motion of matter that has sufficient energy to overcome barriers, in contrast to quantum tunnelling, which occurs directly through barriers. Such transport becomes 'quantum' when the wave-like nature of particles is required to describe the process. There are different types of quantum transport, and devices that turn such flows on and off are called field-effect transistors (FETs)1 and are a mainstay of microprocessor technology. In this issue, Stadler et al.2 demonstrate a micrometre-scale FET that is able to capture the dynamics of quantum transport in a regime called strongly correlated quantum-coherent superfluidity. Their contribution can best be explained by tracking how different FETs can be used to study the dynamics of charge in a progression of transport regimes.

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Figure 1: Quantum transport in field-effect transistors (FETs).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lincoln D. Carr and Mark T. Lusk are in the Department of Physics, Colorado School of Mines, Colorado 80401, USA.,

    Lincoln D. Carr & Mark T. Lusk

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  1. Lincoln D. Carr
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  2. Mark T. Lusk
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Correspondence to Lincoln D. Carr.

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Carr, L., Lusk, M. Strongly correlated transport. Nature 491, 681–682 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/491681a

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