As rapid progress in the miniaturization of semiconductor electronic devices leads toward chip features smaller than 100 nanometers in size, device engineers and physicists are inevitably faced with the looming presence of quantum mechanics--that counterintuitive and sometimes mysterious realm of physics wherein wavelike properties dominate the behavior of electrons. Pragmatists in the semiconductor device world are busy conjuring up ingenious ways to avoid the quantum world by redesigning the semiconductor chip within the context of "classical" electronics [see "A Vertical Leap for Microchips," by Thomas H. Lee; Scientific American, January]. Yet some of us believe that we are being offered an unprecedented opportunity to define a radically new class of device that would exploit the idiosyncrasies of the quantum world to provide unique advantages over existing information technologies.

   
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    RT @sciam Spintronics  

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