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LOS ANGELES, December 20, 2005 — Scientists at HRL Laboratories, LLC have successfully grown and characterized ultra-thin (less than 2.6 nanometers) designer materials in which the magnetic properties of electrons in semiconductors are intentionally changed in a controlled and predictable fashion. This result demonstrates g-factor engineering, a process in which the precession-rate of spinning electrons in a magnetic field can be changed based on control of the solid's composition and structure
The ability to tune the electron's g-factor is a crucial step in the development of quantum repeaters — devices that will allow the next generation of quantum computers to talk to each other using fiber-optic light beams, in which single photons (particles of light) are used to transfer data to be stored on individual, spinning electrons. The results were first presented in December of 2004 at the 5th International Conference on Low-Dimensional Structures and Devices held in Mexico, and more recently in a paper entitled "Direct Electrical Measurement of the Electron g Factor in Ultra-Thin InGaAs/InP Single Quantum Wells," which appeared in Microelectronics Journal [Croke et al., Microelectronics Journal 36, 379-382 (2005)].
This work was funded through the Army Research Office and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency under Contract Number DAAD19-01-C-0077.
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HRL Laboratories, LLC, Malibu, California, is a corporate R&D laboratory owned by Boeing, General Motors, and Raytheon. HRL provides custom R&D and performs additional R&D contract services for its three LLC Members, for the U.S. government, and for other commercial entities.
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