Physicists at McGill get one step closer to quantum computing

The Québec nanotechnology scene has been quite active lately with yet another research team at McGill University (Montréal, Canada) publishing a study. This one comes from a team of physicists whose work constitutes another step in replacing the silicon chips found in computers with semi-conductor  nanocrystals (quantum dots). From the news item on Nanowerk,

Physicists at McGill University have developed a system for measuring the energy involved in adding electrons to semi-conductor nanocrystals, also known as quantum dots – a technology that may revolutionize computing and other areas of science. Dr. Peter Grütter, McGill’s Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Education, Faculty of Science, explains that his research team has developed a cantilever force sensor that enables individual electrons to be removed and added to a quantum dot and the energy involved in the operation to be measured.

Being able to measure the energy at such infinitesimal levels is an important step in being able to develop an eventual replacement for the silicon chip in computers – the next generation of computing. Computers currently work with processors that contain transistors that are either in an on or off position – conductors and semi-conductors – while quantum computing would allow processors to work with multiple states, vastly increasing their speed while reducing their size even more.

Although popularly used to connote something very large, the word “quantum” itself actually means the smallest amount by which certain physical quantities can change. Knowledge of these energy levels enables scientists to understand and predict the electronic properties of the nanoscale systems they are developing.

I like the approach used in this news item. They describe what the scientists have done and include a basic explanation for people like me who might need to be reminded that quantum means small. For anyone interested in reading the research study, this may help you find it,

Dr. Aashish Clerk, Yoichi Miyahara, and Steven D. Bennett of McGill’s Dept. of Physics, and scientists at the Institute for Microstructural Sciences of the National Research Council of Canada contributed to this research, which was published online late yesterday afternoon in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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