Electron Spin and Optical Coherence in Semiconductors

Abstract

Semiconductors are ubiquitous in device electronics because their charge distributions are easily shaped and controlled to make logic gates. Since gate switching and intercommunication rates limit device speed, efforts to improve computational power have led the semiconductor industry to push devices to ever‐shrinking sizes. Yet, as advances in this area have improved the function of today's chip architectures, miniaturization may soon bring additional complications in the form of quantum mechanical effects. Because quantum systems tend to behave statistically, these effects will introduce unpredictable fluctuations in essential; design parameters, such as charge distribution, that will affect performance as device sizes shrink.