This is a timeline of quantum computing.
== 1960s ==
1960
Stephen Wiesner invents conjugate coding.
== 1970s ==
1973
Alexander Holevo publishes a paper showing
that n qubits cannot carry more than n classical
bits of information (a result known as "Holevo's
theorem" or "Holevo's bound").
Charles H. Bennett shows that computation
can be done reversibly.
1975
R. P. Poplavskii publishes "Thermodynamical
models of information processing" (in Russian)
which showed the computational infeasibility
of simulating quantum systems on classical
computers, due to the superposition principle.
1976
Polish mathematical physicist Roman Stanisław
Ingarden publishes a seminal paper entitled
"Quantum Information Theory" in Reports on
Mathematical Physics, vol. 10, 43–72, 1976.
(The paper was submitted in 1975.) It is one
of the first attempts at creating a quantum
information theory, showing that Shannon information
theory cannot directly be generalized to the
quantum case, but rather that it is possible
to construct a quantum information theory,
which is a generalization of Shannon's theory,
within the formalism of a generalized quantum
mechanics of open systems and a generalized
concept of observables (the so-called semi-observables).
== 1980s ==
1980
Paul Benioff describes quantum mechanical
Hamiltonian models of computers
Yuri Manin briefly motivates the idea of quantum
computing
1981
Richard Feynman observes in his talk at the
First Conference on the Physics of Computation,
held at MIT in May, that it appeared to be
impossible in general to simulate an evolution
of a quantum system on a classical computer
in an efficient way. He proposes a basic model
for a quantum computer that would be capable
of such simulations
Paul Benioff gives talk at the same conference
with the title "Quantum mechanical Hamiltonian
models of discrete processes that erase their
own histories: application to Turing machines".
Tommaso Toffoli introduces the reversible
Toffoli gate, which, together with the NOT
and XOR gates provides a universal set for
reversible classical computation.
1982
Paul Benioff proposes the first recognisable
theoretical framework for a quantum computer
William Wootters and Wojciech Zurek, and independently
Dennis Dieks prove the no-cloning theorem.
1984
Charles Bennett and Gilles Brassard employ
Wiesner's conjugate coding for distribution
of cryptographic keys.
1985
David Deutsch, at the University of Oxford,
describes the first universal quantum computer.
Just as a Universal Turing machine can simulate
any other Turing machine efficiently (Church-Turing
thesis), so the universal quantum computer
is able to simulate any other quantum computer
with at most a polynomial slowdown.
1989
Bikas K. Chakrabarti & collaborators from
Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata,
proposes the idea that quantum fluctuations
could help explore rough energy landscapes
by escaping from local minima of glassy stems
having tall but thin barriers by tunneling
(instead of climbing over using thermal excitations),
suggesting the effectiveness of quantum annealing
over classical simulated annealing.
== 1990s ==
1991
Artur Ekert at the University of Oxford, invents
entanglement-based secure communication.
1993
Dan Simon, at Université de Montréal, invents
an oracle problem for which a quantum computer
would be exponentially faster than a conventional
computer. This algorithm introduces the main
ideas which were then developed in Peter Shor's
factorization algorithm.
1994
Peter Shor, at AT&T's Bell Labs in New Jersey,
discovers an important algorithm. It allows
a quantum computer to factor large integers
quickly. It solves both the factoring problem
and the discrete log problem. Shor's algorithm
can theoretically break many of the cryptosystems
in use today. Its invention sparked a tremendous
interest in quantum computers.
First United States Government workshop on
quantum computing is organized by NIST in
Gaithersburg, Maryland, in autumn.
In December, Ignacio Cirac, at University
of Castilla-La Mancha at Ciudad Real, and
Peter Zoller at the University of Innsbruck
propose an experimental realization of the
controlled-NOT gate with cold trapped ions.
1995
First United States Department of Defense
workshop on quantum computing and quantum
cryptography is organized by United States
Army physicists Charles M. Bowden, Jonathan
P. Dowling, and Henry O. Everitt; it takes
place in February at the University of Arizona
in Tucson.
Peter Shor and Andrew Steane simultaneously
propose the first schemes for quantum error
correction.
Christopher Monroe and David Wineland at NIST
(Boulder, Colorado) experimentally realize
the first quantum logic gate – the controlled-NOT
gate – with trapped ions, following the
Cirac-Zoller proposal.
1996
Lov Grover, at Bell Labs, invents the quantum
database search algorithm. The quadratic speedup
is not as dramatic as the speedup for factoring,
discrete logs, or physics simulations. However,
the algorithm can be applied to a much wider
variety of problems. Any problem that has
to be solved by random, brute-force search,
can take advantage of this quadratic speedup
(in the number of search queries).
The United States Government, particularly
in a joint partnership of the Army Research
Office (now part of the Army Research Laboratory)
and the National Security Agency, issues the
first public call for research proposals in
quantum information processing.
David P. DiVincenzo, from IBM, proposes a
list of minimal requirements for creating
a quantum computer.
1997
David Cory, Amr Fahmy and Timothy Havel, and
at the same time Neil Gershenfeld and Isaac
L. Chuang at MIT publish the first papers
realising gates for quantum computers based
on bulk nuclear spin resonance, or thermal
ensembles. The technology is based on a nuclear
magnetic resonance (NMR) machine, which is
similar to the medical magnetic resonance
imaging machine.
Alexei Kitaev describes the principles of
topological quantum computation as a method
for combating decoherence.
Daniel Loss and David P. DiVincenzo propose
the Loss-DiVincenzo quantum computer, using
as qubits the intrinsic spin-1/2 degree of
freedom of individual electrons confined to
quantum dots.
1998
First experimental demonstration of a quantum
algorithm. A working 2-qubit NMR quantum computer
is used to solve Deutsch's problem by Jonathan
A. Jones and Michele Mosca at Oxford University
and shortly after by Isaac L. Chuang at IBM's
Almaden Research Center and Mark Kubinec and
the University of California, Berkeley together
with coworkers at Stanford University and
MIT.
First working 3-qubit NMR computer.
Bruce Kane proposes a silicon based nuclear
spin quantum computer, using nuclear spins
of individual phosphorus atoms in silicon
as the qubits and donor electrons to mediate
the coupling between qubits.
First execution of Grover's algorithm on an
NMR computer.
Hidetoshi Nishimori & colleagues from Tokyo
Institute of Technology showed that quantum
annealing algorithm can perform better than
classical simulated annealing.
Daniel Gottesman and Emanuel Knill independently
prove that a certain subclass of quantum computations
can be efficiently emulated with classical
resources (Gottesman–Knill theorem).
1999
Samuel L. Braunstein and collaborators show
that none of the bulk NMR experiments performed
to date contained any entanglement, the quantum
states being too strongly mixed. This is seen
as evidence that NMR computers would likely
not yield a benefit over classical computers.
It remains an open question, however, whether
entanglement is necessary for quantum computational
speedup.
Gabriel Aeppli, Thomas Felix Rosenbaum and
colleagues demonstrate experimentally the
basic concepts of quantum annealing in a condensed
matter system.
== 2000s ==
2000
Arun K. Pati and Samuel L. Braunstein proved
the quantum no-deleting theorem. This is dual
to the no-cloning theorem which shows that
one cannot delete a copy of an unknown qubit.
Together with the stronger no-cloning theorem,
the no-deleting theorem has important implication,
i.e., quantum information can neither be created
nor be destroyed.
First working 5-qubit NMR computer demonstrated
at the Technical University of Munich.
First execution of order finding (part of
Shor's algorithm) at IBM's Almaden Research
Center and Stanford University.
First working 7-qubit NMR computer demonstrated
at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The standard textbook, Quantum Computation
and Quantum Information, by Michael Nielsen
and Isaac Chuang is published.
2001
First execution of Shor's algorithm at IBM's
Almaden Research Center and Stanford University.
The number 15 was factored using 1018 identical
molecules, each containing seven active nuclear
spins.
Noah Linden and Sandu Popescu proved that
the presence of entanglement is a necessary
condition for a large class of quantum protocols.
This, coupled with Braunstein's result (see
1999 above), called the validity of NMR quantum
computation into question.
Emanuel Knill, Raymond Laflamme, and Gerard
Milburn show that optical quantum computing
is possible with single photon sources, linear
optical elements, and single photon detectors,
launching the field of linear optical quantum
computing.
Robert Raussendorf and Hans J. Briegel propose
measurement-based quantum computation.
2002
The Quantum Information Science and Technology
Roadmapping Project, involving some of the
main participants in the field, laid out the
Quantum computation roadmap.
The Institute for Quantum Computing was established
at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo,
Ontario by Mike Lazaridis, Raymond Laflamme
and Michele Mosca.
2003
Todd D. Pittman and collaborators at Johns
Hopkins University, Applied Physics Laboratory
and independently Jeremy L. O'Brien and collaborators
at the University of Queensland, demonstrate
quantum controlled-not gates using only linear
optical elements.
DARPA Quantum Network becomes fully operational
on October 23, 2003.
2004
First working pure state NMR quantum computer
(based on parahydrogen) demonstrated at Oxford
University and University of York.
First five-photon entanglement demonstrated
by Jian-Wei Pan's group at the University
of Science and Technology of China, the minimal
number of qubits required for universal quantum
error correction.
=== 2005 ===
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
scientists demonstrate quantum entanglement
of multiple characteristics, potentially allowing
multiple qubits per particle.
Two teams of physicists measured the capacitance
of a Josephson junction for the first time.
The methods could be used to measure the state
of quantum bits in a quantum computer without
disturbing the state.
In December, the first quantum byte, or qubyte,
is announced to have been created by scientists
at the Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum
Information at the University of Innsbruck
in Austria.
Harvard University and Georgia Institute of
Technology researchers succeeded in transferring
quantum information between "quantum memories"
– from atoms to photons and back again.
=== 2006 ===
Materials Science Department of Oxford University,
cage a qubit in a "buckyball" (a molecule
of buckminsterfullerene), and demonstrated
quantum "bang-bang" error correction.Researchers
from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
use the Zeno Effect, repeatedly measuring
the properties of a photon to gradually change
it without actually allowing the photon to
reach the program, to search a database without
actually "running" the quantum computer.
Vlatko Vedral of the University of Leeds and
colleagues at the universities of Porto and
Vienna found that the photons in ordinary
laser light can be quantum mechanically entangled
with the vibrations of a macroscopic mirror.
Samuel L. Braunstein at the University of
York along with the University of Tokyo and
the Japan Science and Technology Agency gave
the first experimental demonstration of quantum
telecloning.
Professors at the University of Sheffield
develop a means to efficiently produce and
manipulate individual photons at high efficiency
at room temperature.
New error checking method theorized for Josephson
junction computers.
First 12 qubit quantum computer benchmarked
by researchers at the Institute for Quantum
Computing and the Perimeter Institute for
Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, as well as
MIT, Cambridge.
Two dimensional ion trap developed for quantum
computing.
Seven atoms placed in stable line, a step
on the way to constructing a quantum gate,
at the University of Bonn.
A team at Delft University of Technology in
the Netherlands created a device that can
manipulate the "up" or "down" spin-states
of electrons on quantum dots.
University of Arkansas develops quantum dot
molecules.
Spinning new theory on particle spin brings
science closer to quantum computing.
University of Copenhagen develops quantum
teleportation between photons and atoms.
University of Camerino scientists develop
theory of macroscopic object entanglement,
which has implications for the development
of quantum repeaters.
Tai-Chang Chiang, at Illinois at Urbana–Champaign,
finds that quantum coherence can be maintained
in mixed-material systems.
Cristophe Boehme, University of Utah, demonstrates
the feasibility of reading spin-data on a
silicon-phosphorus quantum computer.
=== 2007 ===
Subwavelength waveguide developed for light.
Single photon emitter for optical fibers developed.
Six-photon one-way quantum computer is created
in lab.
New material proposed for quantum computing.
Single atom single photon server devised.
First use of Deutsch's Algorithm in a cluster
state quantum computer.
University of Cambridge develops electron
quantum pump.
Superior method of qubit coupling developed.
Successful demonstration of controllably coupled
qubits.
Breakthrough in applying spin-based electronics
to silicon.
Scientists demonstrate quantum state exchange
between light and matter.
Diamond quantum register developed.
Controlled-NOT quantum gates on a pair of
superconducting quantum bits realized.
Scientists contain, study hundreds of individual
atoms in 3D array.
Nitrogen in buckyball molecule used in quantum
computing.
Large number of electrons quantum coupled.
Spin-orbit interaction of electrons measured.
Atoms quantum manipulated in laser light.
Light pulses used to control electron spins.
Quantum effects demonstrated across tens of
nanometers.
Light pulses used to accelerate quantum computing
development.
Quantum RAM blueprint unveiled.
Model of quantum transistor developed.
Long distance entanglement demonstrated.
Photonic quantum computing used to factor
number by two independent labs.
Quantum bus developed by two independent labs.
Superconducting quantum cable developed.
Transmission of qubits demonstrated.
Superior qubit material devised.
Single electron qubit memory.
Bose-Einstein condensate quantum memory developed.
D-Wave Systems demonstrates use of a 28-qubit
quantum annealing computer.
New cryonic method reduces decoherence and
increases interaction distance, and thus quantum
computing speed.
Photonic quantum computer demonstrated.
Graphene quantum dot spin qubits proposed.
=== 2008 ===
Graphene quantum dot qubits
Quantum bit stored
3D qubit-qutrit entanglement demonstrated
Analog quantum computing devised
Control of quantum tunneling
Entangled memory developed
Superior NOT gate developed
Qutrits developed
Quantum logic gate in optical fiber
Superior quantum Hall Effect discovered
Enduring spin states in quantum dots
Molecular magnets proposed for quantum RAM
Quasiparticles offer hope of stable quantum
computer
Image storage may have better storage of qubits
Quantum entangled images
Quantum state intentionally altered in molecule
Electron position controlled in silicon circuit
Superconducting electronic circuit pumps microwave
photons
Amplitude spectroscopy developed
Superior quantum computer test developed
Optical frequency comb devised
Quantum Darwinism supported
Hybrid qubit memory developed
Qubit stored for over 1 second in atomic nucleus
Faster electron spin qubit switching and reading
developed
Possible non-entanglement quantum computing
D-Wave Systems claims to have produced a 128
qubit computer chip, though this claim has
yet to be verified.
=== 2009 ===
Carbon 12 purified for longer coherence times
Lifetime of qubits extended to hundreds of
milliseconds
Quantum control of photons
Quantum entanglement demonstrated over 240
micrometres
Qubit lifetime extended by factor of 1000
First electronic quantum processor created
Six-photon graph state entanglement used to
simulate the fractional statistics of anyons
living in artificial spin-lattice models
Single molecule optical transistor
NIST reads, writes individual qubits
NIST demonstrates multiple computing operations
on qubits
First large-scale topological cluster state
quantum architecture developed for atom-optics
A combination of all of the fundamental elements
required to perform scalable quantum computing
through the use of qubits stored in the internal
states of trapped atomic ions shown
Researchers at University of Bristol demonstrate
Shor's algorithm on a silicon photonic chip
Quantum Computing with an Electron Spin Ensemble
Scalable flux qubit demonstrated
Photon machine gun developed for quantum computing
Quantum algorithm developed for differential
equation systems
First universal programmable quantum computer
unveiled
Scientists electrically control quantum states
of electrons
Google collaborates with D-Wave Systems on
image search technology using quantum computing
A method for synchronizing the properties
of multiple coupled CJJ rf-SQUID flux qubits
with a small spread of device parameters due
to fabrication variations was demonstrated
== 2010s ==
=== 2010 ===
Ion trapped in optical trap
Optical quantum computer with three qubits
calculated the energy spectrum of molecular
hydrogen to high precision
First germanium laser brings us closer to
'optical computers'
Single electron qubit developed
Quantum state in macroscopic object
New quantum computer cooling method developed
Racetrack ion trap developed
Evidence for a Moore-Read state in the
ν
=
5
/
2
{\displaystyle \nu =5/2}
quantum Hall plateau , which would be suitable
for topological quantum computation
Quantum interface between a single photon
and a single atom demonstrated
LED quantum entanglement demonstrated
Multiplexed design speeds up transmission
of quantum information through a quantum communications
channel
Two photon optical chip
Microfabricated planar ion traps
Qubits manipulated electrically, not magnetically
=== 2011 ===
Entanglement in a solid-state spin ensemble
NOON photons in superconducting quantum integrated
circuit
Quantum antenna
Multimode quantum interference
Magnetic Resonance applied to quantum computing
Quantum pen
Atomic "Racing Dual"
14 qubit register
D-Wave claims to have developed quantum annealing
and introduces their product called D-Wave
One. The company claims this is the first
commercially available quantum computer
Repetitive error correction demonstrated in
a quantum processor
Diamond quantum computer memory demonstrated
Qmodes developed
Decoherence suppressed
Simplification of controlled operations
Ions entangled using microwaves
Practical error rates achieved
Quantum computer employing Von Neumann architecture
Quantum spin Hall topological insulator
Two Diamonds Linked by Quantum Entanglement
could help develop photonic processors
=== 2012 ===
D-Wave claims a quantum computation using
84 qubits.
Physicists create a working transistor from
a single atom
A method for manipulating the charge of nitrogen
vacancy-centres in diamond
Reported creation of a 300 qubit/particle
quantum simulator.
Demonstration of topologically protected qubits
with an eight-photon entanglement, a robust
approach to practical quantum computing
1QB Information Technologies (1QBit) founded.
World's first dedicated quantum computing
software company.
First design of a quantum repeater system
without a need for quantum memories
Decoherence suppressed for 2 seconds at room
temperature by manipulating Carbon-13 atoms
with lasers.
Theory of Bell-based randomness expansion
with reduced assumption of measurement independence.
New low overhead method for fault-tolerant
quantum logic developed, called lattice surgery
=== 2013 ===
Coherence time of 39 minutes at room temperature
(and 3 hours at cryogenic temperatures) demonstrated
for an ensemble of impurity-spin qubits in
isotopically purified silicon.
Extension of time for qubit maintained in
superimposed state for ten times longer than
what has ever been achieved before
First resource analysis of a large-scale quantum
algorithm using explicit fault-tolerant, error-correction
protocols was developed for factoring
=== 2014 ===
Documents leaked by Edward Snowden confirm
the Penetrating Hard Targets project, by which
the National Security Agency seeks to develop
a quantum computing capability for cryptography
purposes.
Researchers in Japan and Austria publish the
first large-scale quantum computing architecture
for a diamond based system
Scientists transfer data by quantum teleportation
over a distance of 10 feet (3.048 meters)
with zero percent error rate, a vital step
towards a quantum Internet.
Nike Dattani & Nathan Bryans break the record
for largest number factored on a quantum device:
56153 (previous record was 143).
=== 2015 ===
Optically addressable nuclear spins in a solid
with a six-hour coherence time.
Quantum information encoded by simple electrical
pulses.
Quantum error detection code using a square
lattice of four superconducting qubits.
D-Wave Systems Inc. announced on 22 June that
it had broken the 1000 qubit barrier.
Two qubit silicon logic gate successfully
developed.
Quantum computer, along with quantum superposition
and entanglement, emulated by a classical
analog computer, with the result that the
fully classical system behaves like a true
quantum computer.
=== 2016 ===
IBM releases the Quantum Experience, an online
interface to their superconducting systems.
The system is immediately used to publish
new protocols in quantum information processing
Google, using an array of 9 superconducting
qubits developed by the Martinis group and
UCSB, simulates a hydrogen molecule.
Scientists in Japan and Australia invent the
quantum version of a Sneakernet communications
system
=== 2017 ===
D-Wave Systems Inc. announces general commercial
availability of the D-Wave 2000Q quantum annealer,
which it claims has 2000 qubits.
Atos sells first Quantum Learning Machine
to Oak Ridge National Laboratory, supporting
US Department of Energy research
Blueprint for a microwave trapped ion quantum
computer published.
IBM unveils 17-qubit quantum computer—and
a better way of benchmarking it.
Scientists build a microchip that generates
two entangled qudits each with 10 states,
for 100 dimensions total.
Microsoft reveals an unnamed quantum programming
language, integrated with Visual Studio. Programs
can be executed locally on a 32-qubit simulator,
or a 40-qubit simulator on Azure.
Intel confirms development of a 17-qubit superconducting
test chip.
IBM reveals a working 50-qubit quantum computer
that can maintain its quantum state for 90
microseconds.
=== 2018 ===
MIT scientists report the discovery of a new
triple-photon form of light.
Oxford researchers successfully used a trapped-ion
technique where they place two charged atoms
in a state of quantum entanglement, to speed
up logic gates by a factor of 20 to 60 times
as compared with the previous best gates,
translated to 1.6 microseconds long, with
99.8% precision.
QuTech successfully tests silicon-based 2-spin-qubit
processor.
Google announces the creation of a 72-qubit
quantum chip, called "Bristlecone", achieving
a new record.
Intel begins testing silicon-based spin-qubit
processor, manufactured in the company's D1D
Fab in Oregon.
Intel confirms development of a 49-qubit superconducting
test chip, called "Tangle Lake".
Japanese researchers demonstrate universal
holonomic quantum gates.
Integrated photonic platform for quantum information
with continuous variables
== 
See also ==
List of Companies involved in Quantum Computing
or Communication
List of quantum processors
Category:Quantum information scientists
