Paper on ultrafast quantum electronics in silicon and diamond published in Nature Physics

Current electronics is mostly based on silicon microchips, in which information is transmitted and processed in the form of the electric charge of electrons conducting an electric current. Recently, an idea has emerged to utilize also the quantum nature of electrons in addition to their charge, specifically their wave vector determined by the energy minimum (valley) in the conduction band in which they are located.

Martin Kozák's team has developed an ultrafast optical method that allows information to be encoded and read in pure crystals of silicon and diamond by manipulating the populations of electrons in individual valleys. These results were published in the journal Nature Physics.