WA-Quantum GmbH's Quantum Chips

...except both are advertised to be programmed somehow, I believe....

Mapman, the difference between a real atom and an artificial one, one grown in the lab, is that the real atom has a real nucleus in the center with real electrons around it, whereas an artificial atom has an empty hole in the center with real electrons around it. The hole has a positive charge. Follow? I work with one of the world's largest nanotechnology companies to obtain the unobtanium.

Mapman,

Wikipedia to the rescue.

Quantum dot
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Different sized quantum dots emit different color light due to quantum confinement. A quantum dot is a portion of matter (e.g., semiconductor) whose excitons are confined in all three spatial dimensions. Consequently, such materials have electronic properties intermediate between those of bulk semiconductors and those of discrete molecules.[1][2][3] They were discovered at the beginning of the 1980s by Alexei Ekimov[4] in a glass matrix and by Louis E. Brus in colloidal solutions. The term "quantum dot" was coined by Mark Reed.[5]

Researchers have studied quantum dots in transistors, solar cells, LEDs, and diode lasers. They have also investigated quantum dots as agents for medical imaging and hope to use them as qubits in quantum computing.
Stated simply, quantum dots are semiconductors whose electronic characteristics are closely related to the size and shape of the individual crystal. Generally, the smaller the size of the crystal, the larger the band gap, the greater the difference in energy between the highest valence band and the lowest conduction band becomes, therefore more energy is needed to excite the dot, and concurrently, more energy is released when the crystal returns to its resting state. For example, in fluorescent dye applications, this equates to higher frequencies of light emitted after excitation of the dot as the crystal size grows smaller, resulting in a color shift from red to blue in the light emitted. In addition to such tuning, a main advantage with quantum dots is that, because of the high level of control possible over the size of the crystals produced, it is possible to have very precise control over the conductive properties of the material.[6] Quantum dots of different sizes can be assembled into a gradient multi-layer nanofilm.

YEs, I follow what you said about artificial atoms. Sounds like nonsense to me.

I've read about quantum dot applications before. Definitely a useful light/optics related technology but how is it relevant to this discussion. Is that what you or perhaps others mean when they say some material they use is programmed? If so, I might buy that but a program is just a for of technology. It may be good, bad or useless. WHat matters is the application.

Mapman,I did enjoy the above reference!That was a good one!
Have to laugh at some of this stuff!