Idea of atomtronics at the JILA site

[intelwanderer]

Hello everyone,


So I was looking around on the web and came across the idea of atomtronics at the JILA site. It was really cool, and I'm trying to learn more about it. Does anyone here know about it or work with it? If so, what is it like?

What is the future potential of this as opposed to spintronics or "regular" semiconductor research as to future application and funding? I'd still be interested even if it doesn't have any long term application, but I would like to know.

Does anybody know any groups working on this? I know groups at CU Boulder, UMD, Rice and UCR are, any others? None at my university though.

I also have one other general question(which maybe shouldn't be here, but I'm pretty sure that if I go to physics grad school, it'll be in one of the fields covered by this forum. Or at least as sure as an undergraduate is capable of being.). How hard is it to switch subfields in research from undergrad to grad school. Say, I do AMO or plasma physics research as an undergrad, but condensed matter or materials for graduate? Would it hurt admissions chances?

Thank you very much in advance! I'm doing my best to get these answers on my own, but I thought I'd "spread the net", so to speak.

 

[HallsofIvy]

I have no clue what "atomtronics" might be but the name seems peculiar. Atoms are typically far larger than electrons so "atomtronics" would seem to me to be much slower and more awkward than standard "electronics"!

 

[intelwanderer]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomtronics

http://jila-amo.colorado.edu/research/highlights/atomtronics

http://phys.org/news174303837.html


I think the idea is to put it to work with things like single-atom transistors, quantum computing, etc. One of the sites mentioned superconductivity as well.

 

[Kholdstare]

This is already researched. Search for Don Eigler and his "writing IBM with Xenon" or "CO molecule logic gate".