A European research team has developed a new technique that uses the Casimir effect* to reduce the power consumption of nanoscale circuits.

The nanoswitch would be physically moved by altering the state of an alloy (amorphous or the more reflective crystalline state), changing the strength of the Casimir force.

Since the state is physical, this allows the switch state to remain stable after power is switched off, unlike existing nanoswitches, which must be continuously powered, since they are based on electromagnetic fluctuations.

* The Casimir effect tends to force together two parallel conducting plates when they are a few micrometres apart or less. It arises because of the quantum electromagnetic fluctuations that always occur in a vacuum. The close proximity of the two plates constrains the fluctuations in the gap between them. This makes the fluctuation between the plates weaker than those in the surrounding space, so the plates are pushed together.