Scalable Device For Quantum Information Processing

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Scalable Device For Quantum Information Processing

Scalable Device For Quantum Information Processing | ZeitNews

Researchers in NPL's Quantum Detection Group have demonstrated for the first time a monolithic 3D ion microtrap array which could be scaled up to handle several tens of ion-based quantum bits (qubits). The research, published in Nature Nanotechnology, shows how it is possible to realise this device embedded in a semiconductor chip, and demonstrates the device's ability to confine individual ions at the nanoscale.

Microtrap chip


As the UK's National Measurement Institute, NPL is interested in how exotic quantum states of matter can be used to make high precision measurements of, for example, time and frequency, ever more accurate. This research, however, has implications wider than measurement. The device could be used in quantum computation, where entangled qubits are used to execute powerful quantum algorithms. As an example, factorisation of large numbers by a quantum algorithm is dramatically faster than with a classical algorithm.

Scalable ion traps consisting of a 2D array of electrodes have been developed, however 3D trap geometries can provide a superior potential for confining the ions. Creating a successful scalable 3D ion trapping device is based on maintaining two qualities - the ability to scale the device to accommodate increasing numbers of atomic particles, whilst preserving the trapping potential which enables precise control of ions at the atomic level. Previous research resulted in compromising at least one of these factors, largely due to limitations in the manufacturing processes.
 
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Discord strikes the right quantum note

August 6, 2012

Researcher Helen Chrzanowski operates an experiment at The Australian National University that unlocks quantum discord in pairs of laser beams. (Phys.org) -- Scientists have taken a quantum leap forward towards future computing after discovering that ‘background interference’ in quantum-level measurements, may be the very thing they need to unlock the potential of quantum computing.

Record In a paper published in today’s Nature Physics, researchers from The Australian National University, The National University of Singapore (NUS) and The University of Queensland, suggest that this interference – quantum discord – may be what will make a future quantum computer tick. “Up until a few years ago, researchers thought that realising quantum technologies would mean harnessing the most difficult-to-tame properties of the quantum world – the phenomenon known as ‘entanglement’. “But in the past few years, scientists have discovered examples of technologies that seem to work without entanglement, which has left us with the puzzle of where the quantum power comes from,” said Professor Ping Koy Lam of the ANU College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. “Our research has identified that quantum discord, a more robust and easy-to-access phenomenon than entanglement, can also deliver quantum advantage,” said Mile Gu, a Research Fellow at the Centre for Quantum Technologies at NUS. The team in Singapore discovered a direct link between quantum power and quantum discord. “We’ve shown that quantum discord is a resource that we can tap with the right quantum tools,” said Dr Gu. The ANU team encoded information onto laser light to demonstrate the unlocking of this quantum resource. Quantum discord has previously been shown to be present in many systems, and might previously have been characterised as unwanted noise.
Read more at: Discord strikes the right quantum note
 
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Chinese team builds first quantum router
August 7, 2012 by Bob Yirka


(Phys.org) -- With all the talk of quantum computers, little notice has been made of work on what is known as a quantum Internet, which is where data is sent across a web of computers via devices that work at the quantum, rather than atomic level, thereby increasing the speed of the whole system. The holdup at this point is in creating devices capable of routing such information. Now it appears that a team of physicists working from Tsinghau University in China have proven that it’s possible to do so. They have, as they describe in the paper they’ve uploaded to the preprint server arXiv, built a working quantum router capable of routing one cubit.

The trick in routing quantum data is that reading the information from a signal that tells a router where to send data, causes that data or signal to be destroyed; that’s just how quantum mechanics works, so the ordinary way of routing data on a network won’t work. To get around that problem, the researchers used two of the special properties of quantum particles, namely, entanglement, whereby whatever happens to one, automatically happens to another and the fact that a particle is capable of representing two states at once (i.e. both 1 and 0).

To build their router the team first generated a photon with superposition (one that has both horizontal and vertical polarization states); they then converted the photon to two entangled photons that also had superposition states. Then they treated one of the entangled pair as the control signal and the other as the data signal. When the control signal is read, and destroyed, the router gains the information it needs to know regarding which of two optical fiber cables to send the data signal, and thus, routes the data signal down the desired path.

The researchers aren’t claiming they’ve come up with a solution for building a quantum Internet, as clearly their router is only capable of routing a single cubit, but it does demonstrate that routing quantum data is possible, and that’s something that until now, no one else has been able to do. And it also gives hope to researchers that someday a new and different type of quantum router will be created that really will allow for a true quantum Internet, and if that happens, data transmission will likely become so fast, that it will cease to be a topic of conversation.

http://phys.org/news/2012-08-chinese-team-quantum-router.html
 
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