Ultrafast Fourier transform with a femtosecond-laser-driven molecule

Phys Rev Lett. 2010 May 7;104(18):180501. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.180501. Epub 2010 May 3.

Abstract

Wave functions of electrically neutral systems can be used as information carriers to replace real charges in the present Si-based circuit, whose further integration will result in a possible disaster where current leakage is unavoidable with insulators thinned to atomic levels. We have experimentally demonstrated a new logic gate based on the temporal evolution of a wave function. An optically tailored vibrational wave packet in the iodine molecule implements four- and eight-element discrete Fourier transform with arbitrary real and imaginary inputs. The evolution time is 145 fs, which is shorter than the typical clock period of the current fastest Si-based computers by 3 orders of magnitudes.