In a paper recently published in Euro Physics Letters, NYU London’s Guy Wilson and his co-authors in provide a theory to account for the thirty-year-old outstanding experimental results by Donovan and Wilson on the electron transport in polydiacetylene (PDA) single crystals. Their work gives a theoretical understanding of currents induced by light pulses in these crystals, resulting in electron mobility that is higher than in any conventional semiconductor.
In crafting an “umbrella” Hamiltonian, which gives the complete story of quantum energy in the crystals, the authors explain how, in the presence of a low, external electric field, currents at supersonic velocities can be achieved.
The paper’s authors write that further experiments building on this transport theory of PDA crystals could achieve a room temperature super-metal. Their transport theory “offers the possibility of a mechanical control of electrons at the nano-scale,” and can also be used for other materials “whose stiffness and crystal vibrations permit strong enough compressions.”
Read the full paper at: http://iopscience.iop.org/0295-5075/106/2/27004