Growing quantum dots in a regular arrangement

Quantum dots could one day constitute the basic information units of quantum computers. In collaboration with colleagues from Copenhagen and Basel, researchers from Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have decisively improved the manufacturing process for these tiny semiconductor structures. The quantum dots are generated on a wafer: a thin semiconductor crystal disk. To date, the density of such structures on the wafer has been difficult to control. Now, researchers can create specific arrangements in a targeted manner—an important step towards an applicable component that would be expected to have a large number of quantum dots.