Alexander Ako Khajetoorians, Scanning Probe Microscopy Department, Institute for Molecules and Materials, Radboud University, The Netherlands

"What can we 'learn' from atoms?"

Abstract: There is a quest to create materials that are computers, where there’s no longer a distinction between hardware and software. Often, these concepts are routed in mimicking the basic computational properties of the brain and trying to realize them in the physical behavior of materials. Efforts toward this end requires understanding how concepts like memory and association, can be linked to fundamental physical concepts. Here, I will review the ideas linked toward this new paradigm in computing, routed in fundamentals studies based on the idea of “let the physics do the work for you.” I will then demonstrate a bottom-up platform we have developed, based on the concept of atomic orbital memory, which allows us to explore the fundamental physics related to this paradigm. In this discussion, I will review the link to multi-well energy landscapes and the dynamics of glasses. I will then show how the stochastic dynamics of coupled atoms directly mimic the perennial Boltzmann machine. I will conclude with an outlook on these concepts and future avenues in brain-inspired computing and their connections to quantum technologies.