Weak measurement from the electron displacement current: new path for applications

Abstract

The interest on weak measurements is rapidly growing during the last years as a unique tool to better understand and predict new quantum phenomena. Up to now many theoretical and experimental weak-measurement techniques deal with (relativistic) photons or cold atoms, but there is much less investigation on (non-relativistic) electrons in up-to-date electronics technologies. We propose a way to perform weak measurements in nanoelectronic devices through the measurement of the total current (particle plus displacement component) in such devices. We study the interaction between an electron in the active region of a electron device with a metal surface working as a sensing electrode by means of the (Bohmian) conditional wave function. We perform numerical (Monte Carlo) simulations to reconstruct the Bohmian trajectories in the iconic double slit experiment. This work opens new paths for understanding the quantum properties of an electronic system as well as for exploring new quantum engineering applications in solid state physics.