Researchers Prove Existence Of New Type Of Electron Wave

ScienceDaily is reporting that physicists at the University of New Hampshire have discovered the existence of a new type of electron wave on metal surfaces. "The acoustic surface plasmon, which will have implications for developments in nano-optics, high-temperature superconductors, and the fundamental understanding of chemical reactions on surfaces. [...] 'The existence of this wave means that the electrons on the surfaces of copper, iron, beryllium and other metals behave like water on a lake's surface,' says Diaconescu, a postdoctoral research associate in the Condensed Matter Group of the physics department at UNH. 'When a stone is thrown into a lake, waves spread radially in all directions. A similar wave can be created by the electrons on a metal surface when they are disturbed, for instance, by light.'"

Comments

Sorry, Not New

[YetAnotherBob]

Scientific American covered this in an article 2 months ago. (print version yet!)

It is cool though. There may be some nice tech possibilities here. The SA article mentioned higher density HDDs and some chip interface effects. Maybe even a direct optical/electronic interface. Still, the work was done over a year ago. Reports have been coming in. Just not a new report here.

Re:"new" electron wave?

[Markus Registrada]

Somehow I doubt the wave is new. It's only our understanding of it that is new. If you RTFA, you find that what's new is actually detecting evidence of it. Evidence is often (alas, not always) important in science.

Re:Big Claims

[grasshoppa]

Does it also defeat cancer, cure the common cold, disintegrate warts, and eliminate smelly feet? It seems like a lot of big claims are being made for something just discovered.

They've had theories for a while, and the theories indicate that some of the properties may be useful for these things. Now that they have established them as fact AND can reproduce them in a lab environment, they can determine if their guesses ( I would put any one of the researchers guesses against a million of yours ) are in any way accurate.

Science; Gotta love it