Quantum Tech

In a paper for the journal Nature Energy, a Los Alamos National Laboratory research team demonstrates an important step in taking quantum dot, solar-powered windows from the laboratory to the construction site by proving that the technology can be scaled up from palm-sized demonstration models to windows large enough to put in and power a building.

Research that was recognised with the Nobel Prize in Physics this week has spawned an entirely new research area that could lead to super-fast quantum computers. “It’s great that the prize goes toward a field that represents basic research but also is on the verge of many exciting possibilities, says Oscar Tjernber, professor of material physics at KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

Whether for use in safe data encryption, ultrafast calculation of huge data volumes or so-called quantum simulation of highly complex systems: Optical quantum computers are a source of hope for tomorrow's computer technology. For the first time, scientists now have succeeded in placing a complete quantum optical structure on a chip, as outlined Nature Photonics. This fulfills one condition for the use of photonic circuits in optical quantum compu...

Physicists at the Australian National University (ANU) have brought quantum computing a step closer to reality by stopping light in a new experiment. Lead researcher Jesse Everett said controlling the movement of light was critical to developing future quantum computers, which could solve problems too complex for today's most advanced computers.

  “The potential impact of Quantum technology is absolutely profound,” said Professor Neil Stansfield, Head of Excellence for Technology Innovation at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, at last week’s CW (Cambridge Wireless) Technology and Engineering Conference (CW TEC) 2016.

Leiden physicists have manipulated light with large artificial atoms, so-called quantum dots. Before, this has only been accomplished with actual atoms. It is an important step toward light-based quantum technology. The study was published in Nature Communications. When you point a laser pointer at the screen during a presentation, an immense number of light particles races through the air at a billion kilometers per hour.

Rice physicists are closing in on a way to create a condensed matter state in which all the electrons in a material act as one by manipulating them with light and a magnetic field. The effect made possible by a custom-built, finely tuned cavity for THz radiation shows one of the strongest light-matter coupling phenomena ever observed. The work by Rice physicist Junichiro Kono and his colleagues is described in Nature Physics.

Trapped ions are probably the most widely studied qubit technology, but they've historically required a large and complex hardware apparatus. In Nature Nanotechnology, researchers from MIT and MIT Lincoln Laboratory report an important step toward practical quantum computers, with a paper describing a prototype chip that can trap ions in an electric field and, with built-in optics, direct laser light toward each of them.

Quantum computers promise speedy solutions to some difficult problems, but building large-scale, general-purpose quantum devices is a problem fraught with technical challenges. To date, many research groups have created small but functional quantum computers. By combining a handful of atoms, electrons or superconducting junctions, researchers now regularly demonstrate quantum effects and run simple quantum algorithms—small programs ded...

  Dmitry Fedyanin from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and Mario Agio from the University of Siegen and LENS have predicted that artificial defects in the crystal lattice of diamond can be turned into ultrabright and extremely efficient electrically-driven quantum emitters.