Future Trends in Microelectronics: Up the Nano Creek

Part I

Physics: The Foundations

1    Physics: The Foundations

The first part of this volume covers a range of fundamental physics-related issues, from quantum computing to quantum wires. While fault-tolerant quantum computing may be mathematically allowed, is it physically possible? Or, is the quantum error-correction scheme itself flawed by depending on error-free correction means? If a quantum computing system of many qubits is unattainable physically, would a system of a few qubits still be uniquely useful?

Spin control may be difficult to ascertain but is essential for spintronics. While spin control by magnetic fields has been popular, would electrical control via the spin-orbit coupling be inherently more efficient in semiconductors? Conceptually, both charge and spin can carry information, but one is conserved and the other is not, would that necessitate a fundamentally different approach for processing information by spintronics?

Phenomena at larger scales, a thousand times larger than a nanometer, have looked much clearer by comparison. So much so that the notion of perfect lens has cropped up in popular literature. A perfect lens could certainly remove one lithography limit of microelectronics among other things. But can a perfect lens exist, according to Maxwell? Furhter, imperfect lenses are not the only source of limitations the microelectronics industry is facing. Imperfect light sources comprise another. The laser linewidth is a measure of this imperfection and ...