Photo-realistic illustration

Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Resonance Fine Art, Lincoln, Massachusetts, United States

Miniscule wires are becoming very important in high-tech applications. For example, they are required to pipe electrons back and forth in computer chips. Such wires, 1 micron or smaller across, are subject to imperfections in structure and performance. In these situations, the electrons traveling on the wire experience a rather bumpy ride. This situation may cause an electron to reverse its direction. This picture reveals electrons flowing to all parts of the wire from one injection point: the "sun" region. Because electrons moving in such small wires must be treated quantum mechanically, I have represented a quantum aspect of the electrons' motion with color. Electrons are really waves and in this picture, the crests of the waves are yellow while the troughs are blue. Future nanowires may have to transport electrons coherently, that is by maintaining the phase of the wave faithfully. This segment of wire is only partially successful at that process. The background shows short tracks of electrons in a bumpy landscape similar to what is experienced inside the wire.