Self-Organized Quantum Dots

In this, the Information Age, we hear almost daily of advances in the speed of computers, of more efficient integrated circuit chips, and of new digital marvels to improve our lives or expand the ways we spend our leisure time (1). During the last 40 years, computers have become more powerful as their basic element, the transistor, has become smaller and smaller. An article elsewhere in this issue (2) briefly describes how advances in the development of materials and "bottoms-up" materials-processing methods have enabled this miniaturization. The microelectronics industry has continued to respond to new technological challenges as the dimensions of integrated circuits have shrunk. The most recent "road map" for the future issued by the National Semiconductor Association (3) projects advances in the technology at least to 2012.