The Engineering Side of Quantum
That small bended pin in the left under corner of the picture shows this project is in engineering hands and, .. that simple bend pin makes you relate to Quantum computing
Forget all the ‘sci-fi-like, AI-like, chandelier-like’ pictures of Quantum computers. They are beautiful, but also create a huge ‘distance’ in understanding. The picture that comes with the Qutech press release opens up a new perspective. In the left corner there is a small bend pin – the ultimate sign there is an engineer at work. Every student and engineer will recognize these pins. Sometimes they are bended by accident, by pulling out a connector – sometimes the engineer needs a simple connection and bends one pin to another. Anyway, this pictures shows that real work work and measurement is happening on this diamond Quantum Chip and that brings Quantum in the domain of understanding!
Over to the QuTech report:
Quantum computers are anticipated to be able to solve important problems that are beyond the capabilities of classical computers. Quantum computations are performed through a large sequence of basic operations, called quantum gates. For a quantum computer to function, it is essential that all quantum gates are highly precise. The probability of an error during the gates must be below a threshold, typically of the order 0.1 to 1%. Only then, errors are rare enough for error correction methods to work successfully and ensure reliable computation with noisy components.
Diamond spins
Spins in diamond are a type of qubit that shows promise for quantum computation. These qubits consist of electron and nuclear spins associated with atomic defects, for example a nitrogen atom replacing a carbon atom in the diamond. They operate at relatively high temperatures up to 10 Kelvin and are well protected from noise. Also, their natural connection to photons—the elementary particles of light—enables distributed computation over quantum networks. However, realising a complete set of quantum gates with low enough error rates has remained a challenge until now.
Precise universal gates
Researchers at QuTech, the interfaculty quantum technology research institute of Delft University of Technology, have now demonstrated a highly precise universal set of quantum gates using a diamond quantum chip. The researchers used a system of two qubits, one formed by the electron spin of the defect center, the other by its nuclear spin. Each type of gate in this two-qubit system operates at an error below 0.1%, and the best gates even reach errors as low as 0.001%.
The road ahead
While high-precision universal gates are a key prerequisite towards quantum computation, there is still a long way to go to large scale computation. “Our demonstration was on a two-qubit system and using a particular type of defect”, says Tim Taminiau who supervised the research. “A key challenge is to maintain and further improve the gate quality when moving to chip-scale integrated optics and electronics and scaling to many more qubits.”
Realising such larger processors is the focus of the research effort at QuTech and of its collaboration with Fujitsu. The team takes a full stack approach, in which not only improved quantum bits are studied, but also the required control electronics, scalable fabrication methods and new types of quantum computer architectures. “Making the next big step will require bringing together scientists, engineers and industry”, says Taminiau … more details
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