#CHIPS IBM Probes Atomic Memories, Photovoltaics, Quantum Computers

Incredible memory chip densities will someday result from encoding bits onto individual atoms, according to IBM Research, which has reinvented a microscopy tool for characterizing single-atom memories, molecular-scale solar cells and future quantum computers. Look for atomic-scale chips made possible by pulsed microscopy within four years. RColinJohnson @NextGenLog

Scanning tunneling microscope topograph of an iron atom (large yellow) on a nitride-covered substrate (blue), which someday may enable single-atom bit cells for memory chips

Semiconductor designers today are attempting to design atomically accurate materials using the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to image individual atoms. Unfortunately, only still images could be made. Now IBM has reinvented STM to work like pulsed lasers, permitting measurements to be made on a sub-nanosecond time scale, resulting in videolike movies of atoms made at rates of billions of frames per second
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