Cold imitators made of light and atoms

The properties of basic electronic components can be simulated with ultracold atoms that flow through structures made of laser light. This is the result of work in which scientists at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, use a new generation of quantum experiments to explore the behaviour of electronic currents in a regime where predictions are often difficult to make. The building blocks of modern electronics reach such small dimensions that quantum effects start to have a role. For further development and miniaturization of these devices, it is increasingly important to understand ensembles composed of many quantum particles, such as electrons. With current theoretical and computational methods, it is often impossible to predict the behaviour of such quantum many-body systems. Finding alternative methods is therefore the subject of intense research. The group of Tilman Esslinger of the Institute of Quantum Electronics at ETH Zurich has now developed an experimental platform that enables simulating the flow of electrons through tiny channels.