By Peter Weiss
The rolled sheets of carbon atoms known as nanotubes have attracted attention for their potential to usher in a new generation of molecule-based electronics. On such a scale, researchers say, electrons coursing along nanotubes should reveal their quantum mechanical nature. No one had actually imaged such effects, however.
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Now, Serge G. Lemay of Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands and his colleagues have used a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to take snapshots of wavelike electron behavior in nanotubes. In doing so, the scientists have shown that a single electron trapped on the surface of a snippet of nanotube sloshes back and forth, much the way a tone reverberates in an organ pipe.