Chinese-led team generates unprecedented powerful electron in light of strontium titanate discovery
- Scientific breakthrough could rewrite Einstein’s Nobel Prize winning theory, according to a new paper
- Researchers used strontium titanate (SrTiO3), a quantum material with myriad interesting properties
A Chinese-led research team has generated powerful electron beams with unprecedented efficiency, a scientific breakthrough that could rewrite Albert Einstein’s Nobel Prize winning theory, according to a new paper.
In March 1905, Einstein published a paper explaining the photoelectric effect. When light falls on specific material, electrons might be emitted from its surface. This phenomenon has helped humans understand the quantum nature of light and electrons.
A century passed and the theory became a foundation for many modern technologies that rely on light detection or electron-beam generation. High-energy electron beams have been widely used to analyse crystal structures, treat cancer, kill bacteria and machine alloy.
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However, most of the materials that convert photons into electrons, known as photocathodes, were discovered about 60 years ago. All photocathodes have a defect: the electrons they generate are dispersed in angle and speed.
By using a new material, He Ruihua, of Westlake University in Hangzhou, in China’s eastern Zhejiang province, and his team overcame the defence and acquired concentrated electrons. The finding by researchers in China, Japan and the US could raise the energy level of an acquired electron-beam by at least an order of magnitude.
The team’s paper was published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature on March 8.
They used strontium titanate (SrTiO3), a quantum material with myriad interesting properties. Electron beams obtained after exciting SrTiO3 generated electron beams with consistency – also called coherence.