RESEARCH: Seeing Through a Quantum Lens.(Brief Article)

IBM scientists have discovered a way to transport information on the atomic scale that uses the wave nature of electrons instead of conventional wiring. The new phenomenon, called the "quantum mirage" effect, may enable data transfer within future nanoscale electronic circuits too small to use wires.

"This is a fundamentally new way of guiding information through a solid," says IBM Fellow Donald M. Eigler, IBM's lead researcher on this project.. "We call it a mirage because we project information about one atom to another spot where there is no atom."

As computer circuit features shrink toward atomic dimensions - which they have for decades in accordance with Moore's Law - the behavior of electrons changes from being like particles described by classical physics to being like waves described by quantum mechanics. On such small scales, for example, tiny wires don't conduct electrons as well as classical theory predicts. So quantum analogs for many traditional functions must be available if nanocircuits are to achieve the desired performance advantages of their small size.

IBM's new quantum mirage technique may prove to be just such a substitute for the wires connecting nanocircuit components.

The quantum mirage was discovered by three physicists at IBM's Almaden Research Center: Hari C. Manoharan, Christopher P. Lutz, and Eigler. They reported their findings in the cover story of the February 3 issue of Nature. They used the same low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope (STM) with which Eigler and Erhard Schweizer first positioned individual atoms 10 years ago, spelling out the letters I-B-M with 35 xenon atoms.