Scientists from the University of California, Berkeley; the University of California, Santa Cruz; Harvard University; the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom; and the National Institute for Materials Science in Tsukuba, Japan, have conducted an experiment that confirms a theory first put forth 40 years ago stating that electrons confined in quantum space would move along common paths rather than producing a chaotic jumble of trajectories. To conduct this experiment, the scientists combined advanced imaging techniques and precise control over electron behavior within graphene, a two-dimensional material made of carbon atoms. The scientists used the finely tipped probe of a scanning tunneling microscope to first create a trap for electrons and then hover close to a graphene surface to detect electron movements without physically disturbing them.
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