Scientists have made a major breakthrough that could finally help us achieve quantum computing.
A research team has demonstrated a two-qubit logic gate, which is the "central building block" of a quantum computer, the University of New South Wales reported. The device technology used in the study was silicon, which is the same material that is seen in today's computer chips. This means it will be much easier to manufacture a full-scale processor chip than it would be using any competing designs.
"This makes the building of a quantum computer much more feasible, since it is based on the same manufacturing technology as today's computer industry," said team leader Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor and Director of the Australian National Fabrication Facility at UNSW.
The breakthrough could be the final piece needed to achieve super-powerful silicon quantum computers that use the behavior of subatomic particles to compute at breakneck speeds. In conventional computers, data is rendered as binary bits in the forms of either 0 or 1. Quantum bits, or qubits, have the ability to exist as both 0 and 1 at once in a phenomenon referred to as superposition. Qubit operations allow a number of computations to be performed at once.
"If quantum computers are to become a reality, the ability to conduct one- and two-qubit calculations are essential," Dzurak said.
Scientists have been struggling to figure out how to make qubits "talk" and create a logic gate, but now the scientists have accomplished it using the common material silicon. The new approach reconfigured the "transistors" to define the bits in existing silicon chips and transform them into qubits.
"We've morphed those silicon transistors into quantum bits by ensuring that each has only one electron associated with it. We then store the binary code of 0 or 1 on the 'spin' of the electron, which is associated with the electron's tiny magnetic field," said Menno Veldhorst, a UNSW Research Fellow.
The scientists have now patented a design for a full-scale quantum computer chip that would house millions of qubits. A full-scale quantum processor could reshape the finance and security sectors, and even lead to the discovery of new medicines.
The findings were published in a recent edition of the journal Nature.
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