Breakthrough In The Development Of A Single-Atom Transistor

Physicists Foretell Quantum Computer With Single-Atom Transistor -- Wired Enterprise

Physicists at Purdue University and the University of New South Wales have built a transistor from a single atom of phosphorous precisely placed on a bed of silicon, taking another step towards the holy grail of tech research: the quantum computer.

Revealed on Sunday in the academic journal Nature Nanotechnology, the research is part of a decade-long effort at the University of New South Wales to deliver a quantum computer — a machine that would use the seemingly magical properties of very small particles to instantly perform calculations beyond the scope of today’s classical computers.

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More News On The Development Of A Single-Atom Transistor

Less is more: Scientists create the 'perfect' single-atom transistor in dream computing breakthrough -- Daily Mail
Transistor Made Using a Single Atom May Help Beat Moore's Law -- SFGate/Bloomberg
Transistor made from single atom -- CBC News
Eureka! A single-atom transistor -- Asia One
Single-atom transistor may help beat Moore's Law -- Economic Times
Scientists Shrink Transistor To Size Of Atom -- SKY News
Quantum computing a step closer -- Boston Globe/New York Times
Scientists make 'perfect' single-atom transistor -- News.com.au
Researchers from Purdue and UNSW take a step towards quantum computing -- The Tech Herald
Transistor Made of Single Atom -- Technorati

Single-Atom Transistor Discovered

a) Colored scanning electron microscope image of the measured device. Aluminum top gate is used to induce a two-dimensional electron layer at the silicon-silicon oxide interface below the metallization. The barrier gate is partially below the top gate and depletes the electron layer in the vicinity of the phosphorus donors (the red spheres added to the original image). The barrier gate can also be used to control the conductivity of the device. All the barrier gates in the figure form their own individual transistors. (b) Measured differential conductance through the device at 4 Tesla magnetic field. The red and the yellow spheres illustrate the spin-down and -up states of a donor electron which induce the lines of high conductivity clearly visible in the figure. (Credit: American Chemical Society)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Dec. 7, 2009) — Researchers from Helsinki University of Technology (Finland), University of New South Wales (Australia), and University of Melbourne (Australia) have succeeded in building a working transistor, whose active region composes only of a single phosphorus atom in silicon.

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McGill Physicists Find A New State Of Matter In A 'Transistor'

A replica of the first working transistor. (Image Wikimedia)

From E! Science News:

McGill University researchers have discovered a new state of matter, a quasi-three- dimensional electron crystal, in a material very much like those used in the fabrication of modern transistors. This discovery could have momentous implications for the development of new electronic devices. Currently, the number of transistors that can be inexpensively crammed onto a single computer chip increases exponentially, doubling approximately every two years, a trend known as Moore's Law. But there are limits, experts say. As chips get smaller and smaller, scientists expect that the bizarre laws and behaviours of quantum physics will take over, making ever-smaller chips impossible.

This discovery, and other similar efforts, could help the electronics industry once traditional manufacturing techniques approach these quantum limits over the next decade or so, the researchers said. Working with one of the purest semiconductor materials ever made, they discovered the quasi-three-dimensional electron crystal in a device cooled at ultra-low temperatures roughly 100 times colder than intergalactic space. The material was then exposed to the most powerful continuous magnetic fields generated on Earth. Their results were published in the October issue of the journal Nature Physics.

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