Researchers make atoms talk to each other inside silicon chips: Study

Engineers discovered how to make atomic nuclei talk inside silicon chips opening the door to scalable quantum computersResearchers at the University of South Wales UNSW have found a way to make atomic nuclei communicate through electrons allowing them to achieve entanglement at scales used in todays computer chips This breakthrough brings scalable siliconbased quantum computing much closer to realityUNSW engineers have made a significant advance in quantum computing they created quantum entangled states where two separate particles become so deeply linked they no longer behave independently using the spins of two atomic nucleiSuch states of entanglement are the key resource that gives quantum computers their edge over conventional onesThe research was published on September 18 in the journal Science and is an important step towards building largescale quantum computers one of the most exciting scientific and technological challenges of the 21st centuryLead author Dr Holly Stemp says the achievement unlocks the potential to build the future microchips needed for quantum computing using existing technology and manufacturing processesWe succeeded in making the cleanest most isolated quantum objects talk to each other at the scale at which standard silicon electronic devices are currently fabricated she saysThe challenge facing quantum computer engineers has been to balance two opposing needs shielding the computing elements from external interference and noise while still enabling them to interact to perform meaningful computationsThis is why there are so many different types of hardware still in the race to be the first operating quantum computer some are very good for performing fast operations but suffer from noise others are well shielded from noise but difficult to operate and scale upThe UNSW team has invested in a platform that until today could be placed in the second camp They have used the nuclear spin of phosphorus atoms implanted in a silicon chip to encode quantum informationThe spin of an atomic nucleus is the cleanest most isolated quantum object one can find in the solid state says Scientia Professor Andrea Morello UNSW School of Electrical Engineering amp TelecommunicationsOver the last 15 years our group has pioneered all the breakthroughs that made this technology a real contender in the quantum computing race We already demonstrated that we could hold quantum information for over 30 seconds an eternity in the quantum world and perform quantum logic operations with less than 137 errors said MorelloWe were the first in the world to achieve this in a silicon device but it all came at a price the same isolation that makes atomic nuclei so clean makes it hard to connect them together in a largescale quantum processor added MorelloUntil now the only way to operate multiple atomic nuclei was for them to be placed very close together inside a solid and to be surrounded by one and the same electronMost people think of an electron as the tiniest subatomic particle but quantum physics tells us that it has the ability to spread out in space so that it can interact with multiple atomic nuclei says Dr Holly Stemp who conducted this research at UNSW and is now a postdoctoral researcher at MIT in BostonEven so the range over which the electron can spread is quite limited Moreover adding more nuclei to the same electron makes it very challenging to control each nucleus individually added Dr HollyBy way of metaphor one could say that until now nuclei were like people placed in a soundproof room Dr Holly saysShe continued They can talk to each other as long as they are all in the same room and the conversations are really clear But they cant hear anything from the outside and theres only so many people who can fit inside the room This mode of conversation doesnt scaleWith this breakthrough its as if we gave people telephones to communicate to other rooms All the rooms are still nice and quiet on the inside but now we can have conversations between many more people even if they are far awayThe telephones are in fact electrons Mark van Blankenstein another author on the paper explains whats really going on at the subatomic levelBy their ability to spread out in space two electrons can touch each other at quite some distance And if each electron is directly coupled to an atomic nucleus the nuclei can communicate through thatThe distance between our nuclei was about 20 nanometers one thousandth of the width of a human hair says Dr StempThat doesnt sound like much but consider this if we scaled each nucleus to the size of a person the distance between the nuclei would be about the same as that between Sydney and Boston added Dr StempShe adds that 20 nanometers is the scale at which modern silicon computer chips are routinely manufactured to work in personal computers and mobile phonesDespite the exotic nature of the experiments the researchers say these devices remain fundamentally compatible with the way all current computer chips are built The phosphorus atoms were introduced in the chip by the team of Professor David Jamieson at the University of Melbourne using an ultrapure silicon slab supplied by Professor Kohei Itoh at Keio University in JapanBy removing the need for the atomic nuclei to be attached to the same electron the UNSW team has swept aside the biggest roadblock to the scaleup of silicon quantum computers based on atomic nucleiThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever