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Science 19 March 1999:
Vol. 283. no. 5409, pp. 1864 - 1865
DOI: 10.1126/science.283.5409.1864
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Perspectives

CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS:
Pumping Electrons

B. L. Altshuler and L. I. Glazman

Most kinds of electrical current flow dissipate energy in the form of heat. There are a few phenomena, however, where dissipationless flow can be observed. In their Perspective, Altshuler and Glazman discuss results reported in the same issue by Switkes et al., in which a process called quantum pumping has been studied. By periodically changing the shape of the electric field in a quantum dot, the researchers were able to pump electrons through it without dissipation. The results shed light on the fundamental physics of such quantum pumps, which in turn may find application in electronic devices.

B. L. Altshuler is in the Physics Department, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA, and at the NEC Research Institute, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA. L. I. Glazman is in the Physics Department, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. E-mail: glazman{at}physics.spa.umn.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)