Quantum dots with visible color frequencies. Image: Antipoff/Wikipedia
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In research released this week, the team describes new observations made of the surface features of those single silicon atoms, measuring precise charges and the electrical resistance across each silicon “step,” or the single-atom perturbations found on the surfaces of silicon crystals.In what the Alberta team describes as a nanotechnology first, they were able to measure how many electrons might potentially fit on a given silicon atom, a feat previously deemed impossible for the simple reason that measuring something at the quantum scale changes it.“It turns out that the quantum dot itself disturbs the nearby environment, so what we do is measure that disturbance,” Wolkow wrote in an email to Motherboard. “Imagine squatting underneath a trampoline. If someone stood on the trampoline, right over your position, the depression they cause might cause you to be hit in the head. You would have successfully detected someone on the trampoline, but you would also have limited how far they depressed the trampoline. So you perturbed the measurement.“You might instead stand well off to the edge,” Wolkow continued. “You could measure the trampoline lowering—lesser distance—and even if it touched you a little, it wouldn’t much effect how far the person sunk into the trampoline. An electron in a quantum dot similarly, electrostatically, warps its surroundings.” As for getting the particles into and out of the dots, it’s a matter of applying different electric fields around the dots, effectively “tilting” the dot as if you were tilting a full bowl of water, pouring particles in and out.Expect this technology in the world very soon. Wolkow and his team have their own commercial spin-off company, Quantum Silicon Inc. They estimate that within five or six years, these concepts will be finding real-world applications. At first they hope to add the technology to pre-existing circuits that are highly contingent on power usage, as might be found in GPS devices and satellites. But in ten years, QSI aims to have full atom-scale circuitry in mass production. Wolkow is optimistic, to say the least: “It has the potential to totally change the world’s electronic basis. It’s a trillion-dollar prospect.”“It has the potential to totally change the world’s electronic basis. It’s a trillion-dollar prospect.”