Moore's limit in electronic devices and information processing represents the point in time where the number of devices per unit area is so high that the size of each device is on the order of few atoms and will no longer function according to design and the chip will fail. Our experiments are designed to go beyond this limit, working at the size level where quantum mechanics rather the classical behavior determines performance. We will develop coherent coupling between devices, without the need for wires, as well as implement quantum phase, say between particles carrying information, that will be used to carry additional information and serve to expand the horizon for invention and discovery. Our studies include understanding decoherence in entangled systems, a unique quantum phenomena, and provide insight that is quite general and outside our paradigm of semiconductor quantum dots.
The increasingly sophisticated understanding of the interaction between a microscopic system (the electron spins) and a macroscopic system (the dot environment and control or measurement) within quantum theory will provide a basis for understanding and development of future technology as current approaches reach their operational limits. The interdisciplinary nature of the research at the frontier of applications of quantum physics is evident by the team of collaborators in the physics of semiconductor nano-structures, in high-precision coherent optical control and spectroscopy of quantum dots, and in many-body theory and light-matter interaction. The education in this new frontier for both graduate and undergraduate students contributes to the development of highly trained people critical to the infrastructure.
