Scientists Take The First Snapshots Of Atoms Moving Inside A Quantum Electronic Device

Researchers at Stanford have taken the first snapshots of ultrafast switching inside a quantum electronic device. The team has discovered a short-lived state they believe can lead to faster and more energy-efficient computing devices. Circuits inside electronic devices designed to compute and store information have millions of tiny switches controlling the flow of electricity.Researchers are trying to gain a deeper understanding of how those minuscule switches work in an effort to push the frontiers of modern computing. Stanford researchers have made the first snapshots of atoms moving inside one of the switches as it turns on and off. One of the major discoveries from the snapshots is a short-live state within the switch that holds the potential for ushering in faster and more energy-efficient computing devices.

Researchers on the project hail it as a breakthrough in ultrafast technology and science. Scientists Xijie Wang says it marks the first time researchers have used ultrafast electron diffraction, a process able to detect tiny atomic movements in a material by scattering a powerful beam of electrons off a sample to observe an electronic device in operation. For the experiment, the researchers custom-designed miniature electronic switches made from vanadium dioxide described as a prototypical quantum material with the ability to change back and forth between insulating and electrically conducting states at near room temperature.

The material could be used as a switch for future computing devices. Electrical pulses were used to toggle the switches back and forth between insulating and conducting states while taking snapshots showing changes in the arrangement of their atoms over billionths of a second. The images were taken with the SLAC ultrafast electron diffraction camera and compiled to create a molecular movie of atomic motions.

The ultrafast camera can look inside a material and take snapshots of how the atoms inside it move in response to pulses of electrical excitation. It's also able to measure how the electronic properties of the material change over time. The newly discovered intermediate state in the material is created when the material responds to an electrical pulse by switching from the insulating to conducting state. Those two states have slightly different atomic arrangements and typically require energy to go from one state to another. However, when the transition occurs using the intermediate state, the switch occurs without any changes to the atomic arrangement.