A team of researchers from USC has constructed a quantum computer within a diamond.
This unique design was fabricated to protect the computer from decoherence, which is noise impacting the efficient operation of computers.
With the help of certain demonstrations, it can be comprehended that solid-state quantum computers and their implication may represent the scope and potential of quantum computing due to its simple size scalability. The existing quantum computers are small and will not be able to compete with massive, traditional computers, in terms of speed.
The multinational research team comprises USC postdoctoral researcher Zhihui Wang, USC Professor Daniel Lidar, the Netherlands-based Delft University of Technology scientists, Iowa State University and the University of California researchers. Their findings were released on April 5 in Nature.
The diamond quantum computer system developed by the research team, featured two quantum bits, known as ‘qubits’ composed of subatomic particles. Unlike traditional computer bits, qubits are capable of encoding a one and a zero, concurrently. This superposition property when combined with quantum states’ ability to ‘tunnel’ across energy barriers, will expedite the operation of quantum computers.
The first qubit to be developed was a nitrogen nucleus. An electron was observed in a second flaw, which became the second qubit. To be more precise, the ‘spin’ of each of these subatomic particles acted as the qubit. Being smaller than nuclei, electrons can perform fast computations, but prone to "decoherence." A qubit based on a large nucleus is more stable yet slower.
Decoherence protection has been incorporated for the first time. Microwave pulses can constantly switch the direction of the electron spin rotation.
Researchers demonstrated that their system enclosed in diamond, functions in a quantum fashion analogous to ‘Grover's algorithm.’
Source: http://www.usc.edu/