Quantum mirage

The quantum mirage was first experimentally observed by Hari Manoharan, Christopher Lutz and Donald Eigler at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California in 2000.

The effect is quite remarkable but in general agreement with prior work on the quantum mechanics of dynamical billiards in elliptical arenas.

[3] The ferromagnetic iron atoms reflected the surface electrons of the copper inside the ring into a wave pattern, as predicted by the theory of quantum mechanics.

To make conditions suitable for the mirage the team at Almaden chose a configuration of the corral which concentrated the electrons at the foci of the ellipse.

A standing wave pattern emerges with a large peak at the center due to the constructive interference of electrons on the copper surface as they scatter off the adsorbed iron atoms.

The Well (Quantum Corral) (2009) by Julian Voss-Andreae . Created using the 1993 experimental data by Lutz et al. , the gilded sculpture was pictured in a 2009 review of the art exhibition "Quantum Objects" in the journal Nature . [ 1 ]