Two items of interest which relate somewhat to atomic
scales and wave phenomena;
Patent 5,990,721 for a standing wave clocking system.
When digital devices are connected to a clock bus over
distance there can be as much as a 15ns delay or more
from the central clock signal moving through the line
to reach the peripheral. This patent creates a
standing wave in the line that serves to keep all the
attached clocks in sync with 1ns or more precision.
http://164.195.100.11/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=/netahtml/search-adv.htm&r=11&f=G&l=50&d=CURR&p=1&S1=((gregory+AND+watson)+AND+magnetic)&OS=gregory+AND+watson+AND+magnetic&RS=((gregory+AND+watson)+AND+magnetic)
--------------------------
Gary Bullock kindly shares this file (no URL was
provided) about phase conjugation to transfer
information in a 'mirage' type effect. Have to send
this to Bearden!
"Quantum Mirage" May Enable Atom-scale Circuits;
IBM Scientists Discover Nanotech Communication Method
Wednesday, February 2, 2000 02:56
SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 2, 2000--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," said 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 here: Hari C.
Manoharan, Christopher P. Lutz and Eigler.
They reported their findings in the cover story of the
February 3, 2000, issue of Nature, a prestigious
international scientific journal published in London.
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.
To create the quantum mirage, the scientists first
moved several dozen cobalt atoms on a copper surface
into an ellipse-shaped ring. As Michael Crommie (who
is now a professor at the University of
California-Berkeley), Lutz and Eigler had shown in
1993, the ring atoms acted as a "quantum corral" --
reflecting the copper's surface electrons within the
ring into a wave pattern predicted by quantum
mechanics.
The size and shape of the elliptical corral determine
its "quantum states" -- the energy and spatial
distribution of the confined electrons. The IBM
scientists used a quantum state that concentrated
large electron densities at each focus point of the
elliptical corral.
When the scientists placed an atom of magnetic cobalt
at one focus, a mirage appeared at the other focus:
the same electronic states in the surface electrons
surrounding the cobalt atom were detected even though
no magnetic atom was actually there.
The intensity of the mirage is about one-third of the
intensity around the cobalt atom.
"We have become quantum mechanics -- engineering and
exploring the properties of quantum states," Eigler
said. "We're paving the way for the future
nanotechnicians."
The operation of the quantum mirage is similar to how
light or sound waves is focused to a single spot by
optical lenses, mirrors, parabolic reflectors or
"whisper spots" in buildings.
For example, faint sounds generated at either of the
two "whisper spots" in the Old House of
Representatives Chamber (now called Statuary Hall) in
the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., can be
heard clearly far across the chamber at the other
whisper spot.
"The quantum mirage technique permits us to do some
very interesting scientific experiments such as
remotely probing atoms and molecules, studying the
origins of magnetism at the atomic level, and
ultimately manipulating individual electron or nuclear
spins," said Dr. Manoharan.
"But we must make significant improvements before this
method becomes useful in actual circuits. Making each
ellipse with the STM is currently impractically slow.
They would have to be easily and rapidly produced,
connections to other components would also have to be
devised and a rapid and power-efficient way to
modulate the available quantum states would need to be
developed."
The IBM scientists have built and tested elliptical
corrals up to 20 nanometers long with the width as
little as half that.
(A nanometer is one billionth of a meter -- about 40
billionths of an inch -- or about the size of a five
atoms placed side-by-side.)
The electron density and intensity of the mirage
depends on the quantum state, not the distance between
the foci.
IBM Research has long been a leader in studying the
properties of materials important to the information
technology industry. In 1981, Gerd Binnig and Heinrich
Rohrer of IBM's Zurich Research Laboratory in
Switzerland invented the scanning tunneling
microscope, which enabled scientists to see -- and in
1990, position -- individual atoms.
For this achievement, they shared the 1986 Nobel Prize
in Physics. In 1984, Binnig co-invented the Atomic
Force Microscope, which led to a variety of new
instruments that used various tiny cantilevers to
extend near-atomic resolution imaging to many to many
new forces, including friction and magnetism.
IBM's Almaden (San Jose, Calif.), Watson (Yorktown
Heights, N.Y.) and Zurich (Switzerland) laboratories
continue active and complementary nanotechnology
research efforts.
IBM Research operates in eight locations worldwide:
the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown
Heights, NY; the Almaden Research Center in San Jose,
Calif.; the Zurich Research Laboratory in Zurich,
Switzerland; the Tokyo Research Laboratory in Yamato,
Japan; the Haifa Research Laboratory in Haifa, Israel;
the China Research Laboratory in Beijing, China, the
Austin Research Laboratory in Austin, Texas, and the
India Research Center in Dehli, India.
For more information on IBM Research, please visit the
Website at: http://www.research.ibm.com
Dramatic electronic images showing the quantum mirage
are available at:
http://www.almaden.ibm.com/almaden/media/image_mirage.html
CONTACT: IBM's Almaden Research Center
Mike Ross, 408/927-1283
E-mail: mikeross@almaden.ibm.com
Quote for referenced ticker symbols: IBM © 2000,
Business Wire
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Please respond to jdecker@keelynet.com
as I am writing from my work email of
jwdatwork@yahoo.com.........thanks!
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