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Microwaves power quantum computing device

A new approach to quantum computing that uses microwaves to manipulate ions on a chip promises a path to new room-temperature computing techniques, according to a paper published in Nature on Friday.Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology in America say that they have successfully set up and controlled entangled atoms in a gold and aluminium nitride device 120 micrometers across.
Written by Rupert Goodwins, Contributor

A new approach to quantum computing that uses microwaves to manipulate ions on a chip promises a path to new room-temperature computing techniques, according to a paper published in Nature on Friday.

Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology in America say that they have successfully set up and controlled entangled atoms in a gold and aluminium nitride device 120 micrometers across.

The device, called a surface electrode trap, channels microwaves through built-in waveguides and uses the microwaves' magnetic fields to hold two ions in place 30 micrometers above its surface. A succession of microwave pulses put the ions in an entangled state, where the conditions of one ion affected the other, which is usable as a logic gate.

Previous similar devices have used lasers to trap and manipulate ions, but microwaves are far easier to generate and control. They also act as a shield around the ions, decoupling them from outside influences, which vastly improves the quality of the device by preventing noise from breaking down the entanglement. This process, called decoherence, is one of the major limiting factors in creating a practical quantum computer.

In theory, quantum computing can solve certain classes of problem far quicker than can classical computing architectures, by creating multiple simultaneous states where all solutions exist and then statistically identifying the correct one.

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