The Computers Of The Future
Quantum leap towards computer of the future
An Australian-led team of scientists have taken a big step forward in the race to develop a quantum computer.
Breakthrough: an artist's impression of a phosphorus atom (a red sphere surrounded by a blue electron cloud) coupled to a silicon single-electron transistor (College of Fine Arts, The University of New South Wales: William Algar-Chuklin)
Quantum computing relies on harnessing the laws of quantum physics - laws that apply to particles smaller than an atom - to get a computer to carry out many calculations at the same time.
Previous research has focused on using light, or materials other than silicon, in their work on quantum computers.
But the team, led by engineers from the University of New South Wales and the University of Melbourne, have been examining the properties of electrons embedded in silicon, which is cheaper, better-understood, and forms the basis of most electronics today.
To build a quantum computer, researchers need to be able to write information to an electron, by changing its "spin state", and to read information, by measuring its spin.
In an article published today in Nature, the researchers say they have cracked the second part of this puzzle, by creating a device that measures the spin state of a single electron in a single phosphorus atom inside a block of silicon.
Read more at www.abc.net.au
Read More......
