South Korean physicist develops new quantum dot technology

By Yoon Sung-won

Kyhm Kwang-seuk, a physicist at Pusan National University, has developed new technology that can control two nano-scale quantum dots with light instead of electrical circuits, after tenaciously looking into a scientific observation made more than a decade ago, according to the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) Monday.

Expectations are that the new technology is expected to be applied not only to cutting-edge scientific areas such as quantum communication and quantum computing but also to general industries such as quantum-dot display technologies.

“Now we can easily control electron bonding in quantum dots simply by shifting the direction of polarisation of light,” Kyhm said. “As the technology enables effective overlap of more signals, it is expected to be one of the core technologies that can advance quantum communication and quantum computing technologies.”

For the research project, the physicist said he has closely cooperated with Prof. Kim Jong-su at Yeungnam University and Song Jin-dong, a researcher at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST). The research, which has been supported by the NRF, was published in the international nano technology journal Nano Letters, Wednesday.

Kyhm, who acquired his doctoral degree of physics at Oxford University in 2002, is a specialist in nano-optics technology for semiconductors. He has worked as a professor at Pusan National University’s optics and mechatronics engineering department since June 2013. Before his current position, he used to work at the French national research agency Neel Institute-CNRS and the basic science research of Japan’s NEC.