Slashdot Mirror
Optical Transistor Made From Single Molecule
An anonymous reader writes "Researchers from ETH Zurich have recently managed to create an optical transistor from a single molecule in what is yet another important achievement on the road to quantum computing. The molecule itself is about 2 nanometers in size, much smaller than standard transistors, which means that a lot more could be integrated in a single chip. Dr. Hwang, lead author of the academic paper, said, 'Our single-molecule optical transistor generates almost negligible amount of heat. When a single molecule absorbs one photon, there is some probability (quantum yield) that the molecule emits a photon out. The rest of the energy absorbed turns into heat in the matrix. For the case of the specific hydrocarbon molecule that we use, the quantum yield is near 100%. So almost no heat is generated.'"
If one photon is absorbed and one emitted where does the heat energy come from. The molecule must be absorbing more than one photon, or is it also being "powered" so that the absorbtion can take place?
I think he's saying that the molecule either releases a photon or heat is generated. In this case there is a high probability that for the photon release, so heat generation is rare.
/...
do quantum transistors suffer from leakage? if so, while this is an excellent piece of engineering on it's own, it's pretty useless in practice as any data would just get lost in the fudge.
Everything in the article focused on the heat loss, energy efficiency and potential throughput, but no reasons were specifically given as to why this would succeed where Electronic processors have broken down other than 'Photons are beter than Electrons'.
How close can these new transistors get before they start contaminating each other's states?
Would these not be more suceptable to outside interference (Stray cosmic rays, shining a torch on it?)
Okay, maybe not the shining a torch on it. But if a single molecule transistor is hit by a stray photon, it *will* affect it's state surely. If so are they going to have abour 20 transistors doing the calculations and matching them for discrepencies?
The article raises more questions than it answers. Maybe I just don't know enough about quantum computing, but I'd like the answers all the same.
It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for being subtle.
In other words, either we're reaching the limit of what traditional education can teach to a person in a reasonable amount of time or we're reaching the limit of human comprehension. At least one of the two will need a major overhaul before we'll see molecular transistors and biophotonics reach the level of accessibility and acceptance of, say, amateur electronics. And until that happens we'll only see slow, fringe, theoretical progress like this.
mmmm...forbidden donut
Well, do you have a detailed understanding of the equations involved in avalanche breakdown of semiconductors and so on?
But it doesn't matter. You just plug in the appropriate zener diode, or transistor or whatever, that do things in a certain way, that we can understand, but how or why it behaves that way, we don't need to know in order to use it effectively.
Education isn't about learning every detail about the job you're going to do about graduation. At least a good education isn't. A good college will give you a strong background in an area you wish to pursue, a strong work ethic, but most importantly, it will teach you how to learn. A modern education's primary goal must be to teach the students how to look up and assimilate information on their own.
When you hit an issue at your job, you don't just run to a more experienced co-worker anymore (which was the standard behavior 20 years ago). You look it up online, you read and learn from what you find, then you make a simple project to test out what you've learned. Beyond the very basics of your profession, those are the skills that matter most because those are the skills that produce results when no one else has the answers.