How will ordinary silicon chips be used in quantum computing?
"We're hacking the qubit development process."
According to Quantum Motion, the most recent experiment paves the way for large-scale, functional quantum computers.
Forget superconducting circuits, trapped ions, and other exotic-sounding manufacturing methods associated with quantum computing: scientists have now demonstrated that a qubit can be generated on a regular silicon chip, similar to those used in smartphones.
a start-up based in the United Kingdom Researchers at Quantum Motion released the results of their most recent experiments, in which they successfully isolated and measured the quantum state of a single electron for nine seconds by cooling CMOS silicon chips to a fraction of a degree above absolute zero (-273 degrees Celsius).
In contrast to the approaches taken by larger players like IBM, Google, or Honeywell in their attempts to create a large-scale quantum computer, the method's apparent simplicity, which taps identical hardware found in handsets and laptops, is striking.
Scientists must first maintain control over the smallest, quantum particles that make up a substance in order to generate and read qubits, which are the building blocks of such devices; however, there are many ways to do so, each with varying degrees of difficulty.
IBM and Google, for example, have chosen to make superconducting qubits, which necessitates the creation of an entirely new manufacturing process; Honeywell, on the other hand, has developed a technology that individually traps atoms to allow researchers to calculate the states of the particles.