Atom Wire

Scanning tunneling microscope (STM) picture of a nanowire one atom wide and about 150 atoms long. The elevation denotes the local electron density as measured by the STM probe. A charge density wave, in the form of a standing wave, is evident. At times the quasiparticle representation of the charge density wave behaves as if it had a fractional spin and a fractional charge.

Reported by: Snijders et al. in Physical Review Letters, 24 February 2006

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