S cientists
may have discovered the nanotech method of communication! In a
step that could lead to electronic circuits the size of atoms,
scientists have found a way to move information by using
electrons instead of wires. The IBM team at its Almaden Research
Centre recently demonstrated the so-called "quantum mirage
effect", which carries the potential of miniaturizing
microprocessors a million-fold.
When the Almaden
scientists placed a magnetic atom (cobalt) at one focus of an
elliptical "quantum corral," the Kondo Effect shield
appeared at both foci, even the one where no cobalt atom was
present. Donald M Eigler, IBM’s lead researcher on this
project said, "We call it a mirage because we project
information about one atom to another spot where there is no
atom."
This
"quantum mirage" effect demonstrates how information
can be transmitted from one place to another using the wave
nature of electrons instead of conventional wires. It may enable
data transfer within future nanoscale electronic circuits too
small to use wires. (Just to give an idea of how small we are
talking here, a nanometre is one billionth of a metre–about 40
billionths of an inch–or about the size of a five atoms placed
side by side.)
The breakthrough brings
visions of microprocessors millions of times smaller and
billions of times more powerful than the "brains"
behind most of today’s computerized devices–and without the
limitations of wiring.
IBM’s new quantum mirage
technique may prove to be just such a substitute for the wires
connecting nanocircuit components.
And the discovery could
pave the way for the future nanotechnicians.
But lots of significant improvements are
needed before this method of transporting information becomes
useful in actual circuits.