A group of international researchers, including those from the University of Tokyo‘s Institute for Solid State Physics, has created a switch made of a single molecule called fullerene that could potentially produce a more powerful computer than electronic transistors. The researchers used fullerene to predictably switch the path of an incoming electron by using a carefully tuned laser pulse. The switching process can be much faster than switches in microchips, potentially achieving a switching speed one million times faster than a conventional transistor. Fullerene switches may also enable microscopic imaging devices to achieve previously unheard-of levels of resolution.
The fullerene molecule at the heart of the switch is a sphere of carbon atoms that rotates around a metal point, directing electrons predictably. Fast laser pulses of femtoseconds, quadrillionths of a second, or even attoseconds, quintillionths of a second, are focused on fullerene molecules to cause electron emission. This is the first time that laser light has been used to control electron emission from a molecule in this manner.
The fullerene switch employs a technique similar to a photoelectron emission microscope but allows for resolutions of around 300 picometers or three hundred trillionths of a meter. In theory, multiple ultrafast electron switches can be combined into a single molecule to perform computational tasks much faster than conventional microchips. However, several obstacles must be overcome, such as miniaturizing the laser component required to create this new type of integrated circuit.
It could be many years before we see a smartphone powered by a fullerene switch. Nonetheless, the fullerene switch has the potential to produce computers that are more powerful than what is currently possible with electronic transistors, as well as to improve our ability to examine the physical world with unprecedented levels of resolution in microscopic imaging devices.
The paper has been accepted for publication in the journal Physical Review Letters.
EDIT (04/23/2023): The authors’ research paper has since been published in the journal Physical Review Letters, and can be found here.
References
- Institute for Solid State Physics. (2023, February 21). The switch made from a single molecule. The University of Tokyo; The University of Tokyo. https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/focus/en/press/z0508_00282.html
- Yanagisawa, H., Bohn, M., Kitoh-Nishioka, H., Goschin, F., & Kling, M. F. (2023). Light-induced subnanometric modulation of a single-molecule electron source. Physical Review Letters, 130(10), 106204. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.106204
