Life Expectancy on the Rise -- Even for Quantum States
Tuesday, April 14, 2009 - 09:35
in Physics & Chemistry
(PhysOrg.com) -- For the first time, scientists have succeeded in measuring and controlling the lifetime of quantum states with potential use in optoelectronic chips. This achievement is highly significant for the ongoing development of this cutting-edge technology. The breakthrough involved measuring the intersubband relaxation time of charge states in silicon-germanium SiGe structures on a picosecond scale. Experiments have also shown that it is possible to control and extend these times. As a result, this body of work - currently published in Physical Review Letters and supported by the Austrian Science Fund FWF - represents a major advance in the development of data processing based on optoelectronic chips.