Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The semiconductor ""chips"" that can be found in all computers, cell-phones, etc. consist of very dense arrays of ""transistors"" that are used to control the flow of electrical current through literally kilometres of tiny wires embedded in the chip. The voltage pulses applied to each of several million transistors are exquisitely choreographed so that the chip performs the logical operations and data storage required to carry out the instructions written by software engineers. Although this technology is obviously incredibly powerful, it is not omnipotent, and there are certain tasks that digital electronic circuits are incapable of performing, and many others that they can perform with very poor efficiency. The research proposed here is aimed at exploring alternate methods for manipulating information in ways that could provide efficient means of solving these other types of problems. For instance, huge databases might be efficiently searched to extract particular pieces of information, and the transmission of information can be made more secure. In particular, we plan to develop a new type of semiconductor chip where light, rather than electricity, flows through the ""circuit"", where the transistors are replaced by novel nanostructures, and where the choreography applies to the quantum mechanical state of the circuit.