RESEARCHERS TRAP ELECTRONS FOR THE FIRST TIME.
A team of researchers at the Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Sciences has developed a revolutionary way of stacking two-dimensional semiconductors and trap electrons in a recurring manner that forms an elusive and long-hypothesized crysta l. It is to be noted that the a crystal of electrons was first proposed by theoretical physicist Eugene Wigner . According to him if the repulsion between negatively charged electrons (Coulomb's force) predominantes the kinetic energy of the electrons then a crystal would form, thus letting humans to cage the subatomic particles. The Cornell-led collaboration built a trap by stacking two semiconductor layers viz. tungsten disulfide (WS2) and tungsten diselenide ( WSe2), which created a moire superlattice structure. The energy barrier between the sites locks the electrons in space that allowed the team to observe a range of Wigner Crystals. ...