Photon-transistors for the supercomputers of the future

Scientist from the Niels Bohr Institute at University of Copenhagen and from Harvard University have worked out a new theory which describe how the necessary transistors for the quantum computers of the future may be created. The research has just been published in the scientific journal Nature Physics.

Researchers dream of quantum computers. Incredibly fast super computers which can solve such extremely complicated tasks that it will revolutionise the application possibilities. But there are some serious difficulties. One of them is the transistors, which are the systems that process the signals.

Nano ‘resonators’ form tiny logic gate

A nanoscopic ‘”resonator”‘ that could form the building blocks forof the logic gates inside an electromechanical computer has been developed by US researchers.

Sotiris Masmanidis at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and colleagues suggest that computers constructed from nanoscale electromechanical components could be more efficient and robust than purely electronic computers.

The resonator consists of a piece of gallium arsenide crystal 4 micrometres long, 0.8 micrometres wide and 0.2 micrometres deep, attached to a base. One side of the crystal “beam” is doped to provide extra electrons, while the other is doped so that it lacks them. When an alternating current (AC) voltage is applied across the post, an electric field is formed across the centre of the bar. A piezoelectric effect then kicks in, causing the gallium arsenide crystal to deform. If the AC voltage has the right frequency, the bar will resonate, vibrating like a metal bar after being struck.

Read the article at New Scientist

Biological motors sort molecules one by one on a chip

Researchers have discovered how to use the motors of biological cells in extremely small channels on a chip. Based on this, they built a transport system that uses electrical charges to direct the molecules individually. To demonstrate this, Delft University of Technology’s Kavli Institute of Nanoscience researchers sorted the individual molecules according to their color. Professor Hess of the University of Florida has called the discovery “the first traffic control system in biomolecular motor nanotechnology”.