QUANTUM WIRE SWITCH AND SWITCHING METHOD

A quantum wire switch and a switching method for switching charge carriers between a first output and a second output utilizing quantum interference of the charge carriers. A quantum switch includes a quantum wire extending from an input to a first output, a second quantum wire extending from the input to a second output, and a third quantum wire extending between the first and second outputs, the three quantum wires together defining a ring. A controllable-length quantum wire electron stub tuner is connected to the ring. As charge carriers propagate from the input around the ring the stub tuner is used to control the quantum interference of the charge carriers resulting in local maxima and minima at various points around the ring. Setting the stub to a first length results in a local maximum at the first output and a local minimum at the second output, and the charge carriers can propagate to the first output and not the second output. Setting the stub to a second length reverses the locations of the local maxima and minima, and the charge carriers propagate to the second output but not the first output. The invention can also include a second controllable-length stub attached to the ring to increase switching efficiency. A quantum switch according to the invention can also act as a simple binary NOT logic gate or a simple binary AND logic gate.