Building a quantum corral, one atom at a time
IBM's nanoscale research is already yielding scientific insights into the behavior of very small structures, which will help computer designers as they shrink the features on integrated circuits. In the future, developments by IBM researchers using STM technology may eventually pave the way for circuits made from atomic or molecular components. Such circuits could be hundreds of times small than today's electronic circuits, allowing designers to put even more processing power onto chips. That, in turn, could lead to smaller, faster, lower-power and even more portable computers.