Researchers Create Quantum Computer In Diamond

USC (US) — Researchers have built a quantum computer in a diamond, the first of its kind to include protection against harmful noise called “decoherence.”

The diamond in the center, in which researchers built the quantum computer, measures only 1 mm x 1 mm. (Credit: Delft University of Technology/UC Santa Barbara)

The demonstration showed the viability of solid-state quantum computers, which—unlike earlier gas- and liquid-state systems—may represent the future of quantum computing because they can easily be scaled up in size. Current quantum computers typically are very small and, though impressive, cannot yet compete with the speed of larger, traditional computers.

The multinational team included University of Southern California professor Daniel Lidar and postdoctoral researcher Zhihui Wang, as well as University of California, Santa Barbara physicist David Awschalom. The findings are published in Nature.
The team’s diamond quantum computer system featured two quantum bits, or qubits, made of subatomic particles.
As opposed to traditional computer bits, which can encode distinctly either a one or a zero, qubits can encode a one and a zero at the same time. This property, called superposition, along with the ability of quantum states to “tunnel” through energy barriers, some day will allow quantum computers to perform optimization calculations much faster than traditional computers.

News: futurity