Using a technique called electronic quantum holography, a team of researchers at Stanford university have managed to encode 35 bits per electron in a carbon monoxide molecule to render shapes in a chip of copper.
Working in a vibration-proof basement lab in the Varian Physics Building, Manoharan and Moon began their writing project with a scanning tunneling microscope, a device that not only sees objects at a very small scale but also can be used to move around individual atoms. The Stanford team used it to drag single carbon monoxide molecules into a desired pattern on a copper chip the size of a fingernail.
On the two-dimensional surface of the copper, electrons zip around, behaving as both particles and waves, bouncing off the carbon monoxide molecules the way ripples in a shallow pond might interact with stones placed in the water. The ever-moving waves interact with the molecules and with each other to form standing “interference patterns” that vary with the placement of the molecules.
By altering the arrangement of the molecules, the researchers can create different waveforms, effectively encoding information for later retrieval. To encode and read out the data at unprecedented density, the scientists have devised a new technology, Electronic Quantum Holography.
While this specific process may never be used for desktop storage, it is an impressive feat that speaks to the power of atomic archiving which researchers have been pursuing for some years.
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