Making light work of quantum computing
Light may be the missing ingredient in making usable quantum silicon computer chips, according to an international study featuring #CQC2T Professor Timothy Ralph from the University of Queensland.
The team has engineered a silicon chip that can guide single particles of light – photons – along optical tracks, encoding and processing quantum-bits of information known as ‘qubits’.
The experiment, conducted primarily at the University of Bristol, proved that it is possible to fully control two qubits of information within a single integrated silicon chip.
A surprising result of the experiment is that the quantum computing machine has become a research tool in its own right.
“The device has now been used to implement several different quantum information experiments using almost 100,000 different reprogrammed settings,” Professor Ralph said.
“This is just the beginning; we’re just starting to see what kind of exponential change this might lead to.”
The research has been published in Nature Photonics. (DOI: 10.1038/s41566-018-0236-y)