Oxford scientists edge toward quantum PC with 10b qubits
updated 11:25 am EST, Fri January 21, 2011
Oxford U makes headway toward quantum computer
Oxford University scientists have created silicon with 10 billion bits of quantum entanglement for the first time. The team says this breaks new ground in the effort to create a quantum computer that would be much more powerful than a conventional computer. The team used high magnetic fields and low-temperature to coax the electron and the nucleus of an atom of phosphorous embedded in a silicon crystal into an entangled state.
The findings were published in a paper, "Entanglement in a solid-state spin ensemble." The process was used for a number of phosphorous atoms and has the potential to be integrated with existing semiconductor technology in conventional integrated circuits.
"We now need to deal with the challenge of coupling these pairs together to build a scalable quantum computer in silicon," said the leader of the team and co-author of the paper, John Morton, from Oxford University's Department of Materials.
Quantum entanglement is described by the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox from 1935 that says it's possible that the quantum state of two or more objects in a system cannot be described without reference to the quantum states of the other objects, even though they may be spatially separated. [via EETimes]
