What makes your iPod work? Why semiconductors of course. Without them electronics would not exist as you know it.

Electrons in semiconductors behave in ways we can exploit to make gates through which electrons can stop or go only with the permission of other electrons. That allows us to build memories, switches and processing circuits.

We are pushing the size of such devices to ever smaller dimensions in our Graduate School, down to tiny atomic-sized dots or lines.

Dots: only a few atoms across, tiny islands of semiconductors have properties totally different from bigger samples. Each behaves like an atom in itself.

We are investigating new ways to grow dots in precise arrays, to provide parts for entirely new machines such as a quantum computer.

Quantum computer: Using the laws of quantum mechanics that apply to tiny objects, unimaginably strange machines can be built. One example is a quantum computer, predicted to be superfast.

Existing only on paper, this dream is rapidly becoming a reality. We are investigating the use of semiconductor dots to make gates for quantum computers.