Gemand Stone For Aquarius

Tangle quantum computing help

Scientists at Oxford University have taken a significant step towards an ultrafast quantum computer after successfully generating 10 billion bits of quantum entanglement in a material silicon. Entanglement is the key ingredient that promises to make quantum computers more powerful than current conventional computing devices.

The researchers used magnetic fields of high and low temperature to produce entanglement between the electron and the nucleus of a phosphorous atom embedded in a highly purified silicon crystal. The electron and nucleus behave as a small magnet, or 'spin', each of which can be a bit of quantum information. Properly controlled, these spins can interact with each other to be coaxed into an entangled state - the most basic state that can not be imitated by a conventional computer.

An international team of the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada and Germany, wrote a report on their achievements in the journal Nature this week.

"The key to the generation of entanglement was first align all spins by using high magnetic fields and low temperatures," said Stephanie Simmons, Department of the University of Oxford. "Once this is achieved, the spins can interact with each other using microwave carefully in time and RF pulses to create the mess."

The work has important implications for integration with existing technology because it uses atoms dopants in silicon, the basis of modern computer chip. The procedure was applied in parallel to a large number of phosphorus atoms.

"The creation of 10 billion silicon entangled pairs with high fidelity is an important step forward for us," said co-author Dr. John Morton of Oxford University Department of Materials led the team. "Now we have to deal with the challenge of mating pairs together to build a scalable quantum computer in silicon.