Laboratory Equipment

Quantum Computer Beats Conventional in Speed Test

A computer science professor at Amherst College who recently devised and conducted experiments to test the speed of a quantum computing system against conventional computing methods will soon be presenting a paper with her verdict: quantum computing is, “in some cases, really, really fast.”

“Ours is the first paper to my knowledge that compares the quantum approach to conventional methods using the same set of problems,” says Catherine McGeoch, the Beitzel Professor in Technology and Society (Computer Science) at Amherst. “I’m not claiming that this is the last word, but it’s a first word, a start in trying to sort out what it can do and can’t do.”

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/quantum-computer-beats-conventional-speed-test

Laser Offers Versatile Manipulation of a Quantum Bit

By using light, researchers at UC Santa Barbara have manipulated the quantum state of a single atomic-sized defect in diamond – the nitrogen-vacancy center – in a method that not only allows for more unified control than conventional processes, but is more versatile and opens up the possibility of exploring new solid-state quantum systems.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/laser-offers-versatile-manipulation-quantum-bit

Scientists Put ‘New Spin’ on Quantum Technologies

An international team of scientists, including Univ. of York physicist Irene D’Amico, has shed new light on a fundamental area of physics which could have important implications for future electronic devices and the transfer of information at the quantum level.

The electrical currents currently used to power electronic devices are generated by a flow of charges. However, emerging quantum technologies such as spin-electronics, make use of both charge and another intrinsic property of electrons – their spin – to transfer and process signals and information.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/04/scientists-put-new-spin-quantum-technologies

Quantum World in Conflict with Everyday Experience

A team at the Univ. of Vienna, led by the Austrian physicist Anton Zeilinger, has now carried out an experiment with photons, in which they have closed an important loophole. The researchers have provided the most complete experimental proof that the quantum world is in conflict with our everyday experience. The results of this study appear this week in the renowned journal Nature.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/04/quantum-world-conflict-everyday-experience

Single Atom Defects Form Quantum States

By introducing individual silicon atom “defects” using a scanning tunneling microscope, scientists at the London Centre for Nanotechnology (LCN), a joint venture between Univ. College London and Imperial College London, have coupled single atoms to form quantum states.

Published in Nature Communications, the study demonstrates the viability of engineering atomic-scale quantum states on the surface of silicon – an important step toward the fabrication of devices at the single-atom limit.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/04/single-atom-defects-form-quantum-states

Physicists Transmit Quantum Code from Aircraft to Ground

Can worldwide communication ever be fully secure? Quantum physicists believe they can provide secret keys using quantum cryptography via satellite. Unlike communication based on classical bits, quantum cryptography employs the quantum states of single light quanta (photons) for the exchange of data. Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle limits the precision with which the position and momentum of a quantum particle can be determined simultaneously, but can also be exploited for secure information transfer. Like its classical counterpart, quantum cryptography requires a shared key with which the parties encode and decode messages. However, quantum mechanical phenomena guarantee the security of quantum key distribution. Because quantum states are fragile, interception of the key by an eavesdropper will alter the behavior properties of the particles, and thus becomes detectable.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/04/physicists-transmit-quantum-code-aircraft-ground

Quantum Dot Acts as Semiconductor

If you could peek at the inner workings of a computer processor you would see billions of transistors switching back and forth between two states. In optical communications, information from the switches can be encoded onto light, which then travels long distances through glass fiber. Researchers at the Joint Quantum Institute and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering are working to harness the quantum nature of light and semiconductors to expand the capabilities of computers in remarkable ways.

All computers, even the future quantum versions, use logic operations or “gates,” which are the fundamental building blocks of computational processes. JQI scientists, led by Prof. Edo Waks, have performed an ultrafast logic gate on a photon, using a semiconductor quantum dot. This research is described in the Advance Online Publication of Nature Photonics.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/04/quantum-dot-acts-semiconductor

Physics Fills Out March Madness Brackets

Like many sports fans across the country, five groups of physicists at the Univ. of Maryland are filling out their brackets to predict the winners and losers in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. While most people use a strategy to guide their picks – such as relying on advanced basketball knowledge or identifying the cutest mascot – this Maryland method relies on quantum physics.

David Hucul, a graduate student, came up with the idea. Last year, his quantum picks performed surprisingly well against picks from other people in the laboratory.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/03/physics-fills-out-march-madness-brackets

Photons from Solid-State Chips Key to Quantum Internet

The realization of quantum networks is one of the major challenges of modern physics. Now, new research shows how high-quality photons can be generated from solid-state chips, bringing us closer to the quantum Internet. The number of transistors on a microprocessor continues to double every two years, amazingly holding firm to a prediction by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore almost 50 years ago.

If this is to continue, conceptual and technical advances harnessing the power of quantum mechanics in microchips will need to be investigated within the next decade. Developing a distributed quantum network is one promising direction pursued by many researchers today.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/03/photons-solid-state-chips-key-quantum-internet

Quantum Refrigerator Offers Extreme Cooling, Convenience

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a solid-state refrigerator that uses quantum physics in micro- and nanostructures to cool a much larger object to extremely low temperatures.

What’s more, the prototype NIST refrigerator, which measures a few inches in outer dimensions, enables researchers to place any suitable object in the cooling zone and later remove and replace it, similar to an all-purpose kitchen refrigerator. The cooling power is the equivalent of a window-mounted air conditioner cooling a building the size of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/03/quantum-refrigerator-offers-extreme-cooling-convenience

Physicists Manipulate Light on Superconducting Chips
Physicists at UC Santa Barbara are manipulating light on superconducting chips, and forging new pathways to building the quantum devices of the future — including super-fast and powerful quantum computers.

The science behind tomorrow’s quantum computing and communications devices is being conducted today at UCSB in what some physicists consider to be one of the world’s top laboratories in the study of quantum physics. A team in the lab of John Martinis, UCSB professor of physics, has made a discovery that provides new understanding in the quantum realm and the findings are published this week in Physical Review Letters.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/03/physicists-manipulate-light-superconducting-chips

New Light Source for Quantum Computers

Researchers have discovered a new way of emitting photons one at a time. They have constructed semiconductor nanowires with “quantum dots” of unprecedented quality – a discovery with implications for the future of quantum computing.

In a future of quantum computing, data will be treated and transmitted by lasers. The quantum properties of light will endow machines with gigantic computing potential and an incredible execution rate. However, much work remains to be done. In order to exploit the “quantum” potential of light it is necessary, among other things, to be able easily to emit photons one by one.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/02/new-light-source-quantum-computers