First mechantronics then electronics after spintronics and now atomtronics...
Electronics is the field of electron movement in the circuits governed by the use of wires, silicon and electricity. All modern electronic devices contain transistors as the fundamental building blocks. Until recently, electronics had been based on a single property of electrons—their charge. But now physicists have begun to exploit another property—electron spin. The technology of spintronics promises to revolutionise electronics because it allows information to be encoded in an entirely new way.
But as the size of semiconductor devices is reducing year by year, the present size of fabrication of one semiconductor device being in nanometers, the fabrication becomes difficult as the silicon melts if tried to be fabricated.
So the latest word that is buzzing around in the research industry is ATOMTRONICS—the science of creating circuits, devices and materials using ultra-cold atoms instead of electrons. What if atoms could be used to perform the functions that are currently the province of electronic devices? The goal of atomtronics is to do just that by creating analogues to the common items found in electronic and spintronic devices.
Atomtronics is a young and mostly theoretical field based on the idea that atoms in unusual quantum states of matter may provide an alternative to the tried-and-true electron for making useful devices. The field’s proponents have drawn up blueprints for atomic versions of many traditional electronic components—from wires and batteries to transistors and diodes. The idea is to manipulate neutral atoms using lasers in a way that mimics the behaviour of electrons in wires, transistors and logic gates.
In atomtronics, the current carriers in electronics(electrons) are replaced with neutral and ultra cold atoms and the semiconductor material is replaced with the optical lattice and the electric potential is replaced by chemical potential.
Over the last decade or two, physicists have become masters at creating optical lattices in which atoms can be
pushed, pulled and prodded at will. The problem is that atoms don’t behave like electrons. So, building the atomtronic equivalent of something even as straightforward as a simple circuit consisting of a battery and resistor in series requires some thinking out of the box.
The dynamics of atoms in optical lattice are just an addition to the field of by theoretically demonstrating that the electronic properties of the diode and transistor can be observed in specifically tailored optical lattices. Researchers believe that it is possible to emulate the behaviour of a semiconductor diode in these atomic systems. For example, simulations show that this augmented optical lattice will allow atoms to flow across it from left to right, but forbids the atoms to traverse the lattice going the other way. Ultra-cold atoms have interesting properties that conventional materials lack—superfluidity, superconductivity and coherence, to name just three.
These can be used to measure time on unimaginably short time-scales, can carry out simple calculations and may even form the basis of future quantum computers. Almost all of the atomtronics pioneers hope that for certain applications atoms will prove to be more interesting than electrons.
Latest developments
The atoms placed in an optical lattice,when super-cooled to form Bose- Einstein condensates, may form states analogous to electrons in solid-state crystalline media such as semiconductors. Impurity doping allows the creation of n- and p-type semiconductor analogue states, and an atomtronic battery can be created by maintaining two contacts at different chemicalpotentials. Analogues to diodes andtransistors have also been theoretically demonstrated. Although atomtronic devices have yet to be realised experimentally, the properties of condensed atoms offer a wide range of possible applications. The use of ultra-cold atoms allows for circuit elements, which further allow for the coherent flow of information and may be useful in connecting classical electronic devices and quantum computers. The use of atomtronics may allow for quantum computers that work
on macroscopic scales and do not require the technological precision of laser-controlled few-ion computing
methods. Since the atoms are Bose condensed, they have the property of superfluidity and, therefore, have
resistance-less current in which no energy is lost or heat is dissipated, similar to superconducting electronic devices.
Limitations of atomtronics
Scientists are hoping to use the condensate in the way that superconductors have been used to make improved devices and sensors. Idea for a useful device was inspired by superconducting quantum interference devices, commonly known as SQUIDs. Scientists also believe that Bose-Einstein condensate could provide an extremely
sensitive rotation sensor. It is pointed out, however, that atomtronics probably won’t replace electronics as atoms are sluggish compared to electrons. This means it might be difficult to replace fast electronic devices with sluggish atomtronic devices.
Source:- EFY Magazine
