Single-atom transistor may help beat Moore's Law

Scientists have taken a first early step toward escaping the limits of a technological principle called Moore's Law by creating a working transistor using a single phosphorus atom.

The atom was etched into a silicon bed with "gates" to control electrical flow and metallic contacts to apply voltage, researchers reported in the journal ' Nature Nanotechnology'.

It is the first such device to be precisely positioned using a repeatable technology, they said, and may one day help ease the way toward creation of a so-called quantum computer that would be significantly smaller and faster.

"We decided 10 years to try and make single-atom devices as fast as we could," said Michelle Simmons, director of ARC Center at the University of New South Wales.