Researchers Create 4nm Transistor With Seven Atoms

EmagGeek writes "University researchers have created a transistor by replacing just seven atoms of silicon with phosphorous. The seven-atom transistor has hopeful implications for the future of quantum cryptography, nuclear and weather modeling, and other applications. 'The significance of this achievement is that we are not just moving atoms around or looking at them through a microscope,' says Professor Michelle Simmons, a co-author of a paper on the subject that is being published by Nature Nanotechnology. The paper is entitled 'Spectroscopy of Few-Electron Single-Crystal Silicon Quantum Dots'."

Comments

7 Atoms?

[Anonymous Coward]

Should've used a VIA C7 instead.

Not Holding My Breath

[Anonymous Coward]

It sounds like they did this by moving single atoms at a time, and not through any kind of lithography, or mass-producible process. So while neat, like the single atom transistor story from a while back, it doesn't look like they really have a way to produce billions of these at a time. We may have to wait a long time before we see anything like this in our home PCs.

Re:Not Holding My Breath

[$RANDOMLUSER]

You probably don't need a quantum computer to wait on I/O in your home PC.

Re:Not Holding My Breath

[bain itic]

Even in a crystaline structure? Forgive me, IANAMS.

Yes, even in a crystalline structure. Diffusion in solids at the macroscopic scale seems slow compared to say, cream in your coffee, but at the atomic scale... They did this at the surface, which makes it even worse. I can't imagine this lasting any useful amount of time without some SEVERE cooling measures. I'm not sure if even liquid nitrogen could save it. IAAMS.

New hardware error?

[Errol backfiring]

Just wait until you get an error message that says:

* * * ATOM NOT PRESENT ERROR * * *

Re:New hardware error?

[Yvan256]

Better than the Wolfcastle error:
At them not present error.

Re:New hardware error?

[roman_mir]

Atom decay detected, insert proton. (Insert, Abort, Cancel)

Re:New hardware error?

[jo_ham]

"Are you sure you want to insert a proton?"

(Positive, Cancel)

Re:New hardware error?

[binarylarry]

* ATOMIC ERROR: ATOM IS EITHER PRESENT OR NOT PRESENT (I CAN'T TELL, CAN YOU LOOK)

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Eat my transistor

[flahwho]

I once created a transistor with seven raisins. It didn't last long and I think Kelloggs stole the patent!

--I forgot my sig.

Interesting

[daveime]

I thought that phosphorus was one of those elements that is never present in atomic form, it's so reactive it immediately oxidizes to form phosphorus compounds.

Does this mean the 7 atom transistor has to remain in a vacuum ?

Re:Interesting

[irreverant]

We move forward while we move back, if it needs to be in a vacuum then it would use a vacuum tube, while it's good for music it's bad for computers since we moved forward from these to transistors. I'm thoroughly confused now.

Re:Interesting

[jo_ham]

You can just keep it in an inert atmosphere or cover it in an inert insulator.

You can store phosphorus under oil relatively easily. No need for a vacuum per se.

Applications

[dohzer]

The seven-atom transistor has very hopeful implications for the future of quantum cryptography, nuclear and weather modeling, and other applications.

Why not just say that it will lead to faster computers?

Re:Gonna be tough to solder!

[Linker3000]

One atom has a tab