Academics

EECS 428: Introduction to Quantum Nanotechnology

Instructor: Professor Alex Burgers

Coverage

The development and application of nanotechnology governed by quantum behavior is impacting nearly all the fields of engineering, from those who are developing it to those who use it. Future engineers working to design new devices will need a skill set that is considerably broadened to include the behavior of materials and devices when they become sufficiently small. Devices like transistors and quantum well lasers have already forced engineers to understand the impact of Fermi-Dirac statistics and energy quantization on devices. However, the field of nanotechnology is revealing that the concepts we have from our current scale devices are no longer adequate to predict correct device experience. Moreover, in this new regime, new physical properties are emerging that may revolutionize how we think of information and its storage, transmission and processing. This course aims to introduce students to basic concepts and calculation tools in quantum physics that are relevant to novel device concepts. The course will explore the new properties of nano-vibrators, quantum LC circuits, quantum tunneling, the role of loss, the impact of the quantum vacuum on nano-switches, coherent superposition, quantum entanglement and light, one photon at a time.