Store 35 bits per electron
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090124/full/news.2009.54.html
How low can you go?
Quantum hologram pushes back the limits of information density.
Eric Hand
A pattern of carbon monoxide molecules (top) creates a quantum hologram (middle). The input image
can be accurately read (bottom).Nature Nanotech.
The ones and zeroes that propel the digital world — the fording of electrons across a transistor, or hard
drives reliant on electrons' intrinsic spin — are getting packed into smaller and smaller spaces. The limit
was thought to be set: no more than one bit of information could be encoded on an atom or electron.
But now, researchers at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, have used another feature of the
electron — its tendency to bounce probabilistically between different quantum states — to create
holograms that pack information into subatomic spaces. By encoding information into the electron's
quantum shape, or wave function, the researchers were able to create a holographic drawing
that contained 35 bits per electron.
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090124/full/news.2009.54.html
How low can you go?
Quantum hologram pushes back the limits of information density.
Eric Hand
A pattern of carbon monoxide molecules (top) creates a quantum hologram (middle). The input image
can be accurately read (bottom).Nature Nanotech.
The ones and zeroes that propel the digital world — the fording of electrons across a transistor, or hard
drives reliant on electrons' intrinsic spin — are getting packed into smaller and smaller spaces. The limit
was thought to be set: no more than one bit of information could be encoded on an atom or electron.
But now, researchers at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, have used another feature of the
electron — its tendency to bounce probabilistically between different quantum states — to create
holograms that pack information into subatomic spaces. By encoding information into the electron's
quantum shape, or wave function, the researchers were able to create a holographic drawing
that contained 35 bits per electron.
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