Year: 2017
Type: other
Abstract: ConclusionA combined ENS/CNRS/CEA-Saclay team from the Pierre Aigrain Laboratory has for the first time demonstrated how remarkably an electronic circuit behaves when its miniaturization is pushed to the extreme.These results are published in the journal Science.The researchers have shown that the fundamental laws of electricity, established since 1845, can no longer describe the properties of an electronic circuit when its dimensions reach nanometric scale.These studies confirm Markus Büttiker's theoretical predictions (University of Geneva) made 10 years ago and never since verified.The laws of ordinary macroscopic physics do not take account of electrons' microscopic behavior, which is governed by the laws of quantum mechanics.This form of mechanics, since its discovery nearly 100 years ago, has revealed utterly astonishing behavior, far removed from our intuitive understanding of the phenomena.Due to the miniaturization of electronic circuits, the size of the components becomes so small that the physical description of the phenomena at work is affected by it: the laws of macroscopic physics are no longer applicable.The quantum effects will be unavoidable in the electronic circuits of tomorrow.Light already plays a leading role in IT: it enables information to be transported at a very high rate, through optical fibers.But on a computer, the data are always handled and stored by electronic means.And the electronic exchange of data between processors, as well as memory, limits the speed of modern computers.Consequently, scientists seek methods of carrying out calculations and storing data purely optically -this is one of the domains studied in photonics.Thus, researchers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have created a completely optical memory by using materials known as "phase change" materials.These are new materials whose optical properties vary depending on how the atoms that form them are arranged.Under the effect of ultra short laser pulses, they Quantum Communications in New Telecommunications Systems, First Edition.
Source: Wiley eBooks
Authors: Malek Benslama, Achour Benslama, Skander Aris
Language: English
Subfield: Condensed Matter Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4236439449