Quantum leap in research

The researchers found that electrons have more than just a charge and can also spin around their own axis, producing a magnetic field. The spin can be accelerated or decelerated by applying an external magnetic field. This causes the axis to tip at any chosen angle, opening the potential to store much more information. The report also reveals that by moving adjacent electrons into different configurations, the resulting magnetic forces exerted against each other, would provide a more complex base for data storage. The researchers have been working on confining nearly one million electrons and totalling their effect. As well as aligning an electronic spin, the researchers also managed to rotate it optically using a laser pulse in any direction at any time and read this direction out with a further laser pulse. Prof Andreas Wieck (pictured), from Ruhr University, Bochum in Germany, said: "The interesting factor here is that these electrons are enclosed in solid bodies, so we no longer need complex high vacuum equipment and light occlusion on all sides to keep them permanently in a module as in quantum optics. The extremely high vacuum is required only once during production of the quantum dot. After that the semiconductor system is sealed against air ingress, has a long service life and is just as reliable as all transistors and memory cells already in use today."