Creating and probing electron whispering-gallery modes in graphene

The design of high-finesse resonant cavities for electronic waves faces challenges due to short electron coherence lengths in solids. Complementing previous approaches to confine electronic waves by carefully positioned adatoms at clean metallic surfaces, we demonstrate an approach inspired by the p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2015-05, Vol.348 (6235), p.672-675
Main Authors: Zhao, Yue, Wyrick, Jonathan, Natterer, Fabian D., Rodriguez-Nieva, Joaquin F., Lewandowski, Cyprian, Watanabe, Kenji, Taniguchi, Takashi, Levitov, Leonid S., Zhitenev, Nikolai B., Stroscio, Joseph A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Circularity
Electronics
Electrons
Galleries
Graphene
Graphite
Holes
Materials science
Nanostructure
Resonators
Walls
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Summary:The design of high-finesse resonant cavities for electronic waves faces challenges due to short electron coherence lengths in solids. Complementing previous approaches to confine electronic waves by carefully positioned adatoms at clean metallic surfaces, we demonstrate an approach inspired by the peculiar acoustic phenomena in whispering galleries. Taking advantage of graphene's gate-tunable light-like carriers, we create whispering-gallery mode (WGM) resonators defined by circular pn junctions, induced by a scanning tunneling probe. We can tune the resonator size and the carrier concentration under the probe in a back-gated graphene device over a wide range. The WGM-type confinement and associated resonances are a new addition to the quantum electron-optics toolbox, paving the way to develop electronic lenses and resonators.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.aaa7469