Home // International Journal On Advances in Systems and Measurements, volume 9, numbers 1 and 2, 2016 // View article

Dynamics in Carbon Nanotubes for In-Materio Computation

Authors:
Stefano Nichele
Johannes Jensen
Dragana Laketic
Odd Rune Lykkebø
Gunnar Tufte

Keywords: Computation-in-Materio; Evolution-in-Materio; Evolvable Hardware; Carbon Nanotubes; Dynamical Systems; Complexity

Abstract:
In-materio computation exploits physical properties of materials as substrates for computation. Evolution-In-Materio (EIM) uses evolutionary search algorithms to find such configurations of the material for which material physics yields desired computation. New unconventional materials have been recently investigated as potential computational mediums. Such materials may intrinsically possess rich physical properties, which may allow a wide variety of dynamics. However, how to access such properties and exploit them to carry out a wanted computation is still an open question. This article explores the dynamics in one particular type of nanomaterials which is used to solve computational tasks. Nanocomposites of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (SWCNTs) and PolyButyl MethAcrylate (PBMA) are configured so as to undergo evolutionary processes with the goal of performing certain computational tasks. Early experiments showed that rich dynamics may be achieved, which may yield compl ex computations. Some indications of chaotic behavior were observed so further work was carried out with the aim of examining the dynamics achievable by such nanocomposites. Since it is not an easy task to access the physics at the very bottom of the material, investigation of the material dynamics is kept within the limits imposed by our measurement equipment and the level of observability enabled by it. Presented results show that interesting, complex dynamics is achievable by examined nanocomposites and that it depends on the type of signals used for the material configuration as well as on the material intrinsic properties such as percentage of SWCNTs in the nanocomposite.

Pages: 24 to 37

Copyright: Copyright (c) to authors, 2016. Used with permission.

Publication date: June 30, 2016

Published in: journal

ISSN: 1942-261x