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A comment on A new material helps transistors become vanishingly small. Parent comment

Re:A new material helps transistors become vanishingly small by Reelin on Saturday July 18, 2020 @01:39AM (#23879292)
> if, in use, its thickness approaches the wavelength of your charge carrier

Tangentially, a conceptually similar and equally counterintuitive phenomenon is attenuated total reflection. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attenuated_total_reflectance)

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Re:A new material helps transistors become vanishingly small by ncmncm on Sunday July 19, 2020 @05:45PM (#23892709)
Fascinating.

I had only just learned about "evanescent wave" interactions. The idea is that, alongside wave propagation, E-M mechanics admits numerous non-wave, and therefore short-range solutions. These solutions are necessary to explain total internal reflection. E-M interactions with materials a short distance beyond the boundary can change the reflectance. ATR is clever in using multiple such interactions to sample properties of a material close enough to the boundary.

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