Technology that leads to "single molecule computer" capable of computing at a speed 1000 times higher than conventional supercomputers

Supercomputer development has been carried out in various countries all over the world and the "fastest in the world" is competing, but a technology that leads to "one-molecule computer" which enables operation at a speed of 1000 times or more than that of a conventional supercomputer has appeared did.

It is expected to be an innovative information processing technology that is more than 100 times more compact and more than 1000 times faster than the information device based on the conventional silicon transistor, and means for solving the problems of high integrated circuits of silicon transistors The day when it will be active as may come.

Details are as below.
Successfully rewriting information in one molecule smaller than nano computer
- New optical technology enabling arbitrary ultrahigh-speed operation with one molecule -

According to the press release of the Institute for Natural Science Research, Institute for Molecular Science and Technology, the modern high-speed information processing technology relies on highly integrated circuits of silicon transistors, and as the degree of integration further increases, the insulator When the width reaches the level of several atomic layers, it seems that heat and error will occur due to the exudation of electrons.

Current silicon transistors use electric charges as carriers of information (information carriers), but as long as electric charge is used, this problem can not be avoided even by using the latest nanotechnology.

In order to solve this problem,Kenji Omori Research Director / ProfessorFocused on using the "quantum mechanical wave (electrically-neutral wave) (wave function)" in the molecule as an information carrier, and developed a new technique to rewrite the written information in a moment.

Newly developed is accessing many wave functions at the same time by using laser pulses that shine for a very short time of less than 1 trillionths of a second, and it is possible to access more than one million different information in nm (nanometer) It is said that you can realize the information density which is more than 100 times that of the highest performance DRAM planned by 2020 with the technology to be able to input into one molecule of the size below.

In addition, Professor Omori and others succeeded in executing the Fourier transform at the speed of 1000 times or more than that of the conventional supercomputer using the wave function in the 0.3 nm size molecule,One molecule can function as an ultrahigh speed computerAlthough we demonstrated in March 2010, at this point we were able to perform only two specific logical operations.

However, this time, the wave function of different energy states in the molecule, which was conventionally thought not to interfere, intermingle and interfere with each other by irradiation with a high-intensity infrared laser pulse that glows by 10 trillion parts per second, completely new By discovering a physical phenomenon and changing the intensity of multiple wave functions in the molecule using this interference phenomenon, we successfully rewritten information written as a combination of those intensities from the outside.

A reference diagram of the new physical phenomenon "high intensity laser induced quantum interference" discovered this time.


This achievement is expected to be useful also for the development of fundamental technologies for performing arbitrary logical operations in molecular computers and the fundamental technologies for restoring wave functions disturbed in solids and liquids, The results are said to be made public on April 10, 2011 (UK time) on the online bulletin of British science magazine "Nature Physics".