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Silicon semiconductors have taken a dazzling
distance along the computing road.
But even if they continue to get faster and
more powerful, there’s a limit to what classical
computing can do.
The next level in computing is quantum--tapping
the quantum mechanical properties of materials
to process information in ways that will make
today’s fastest super computers seem like
pocket calculators.
And for the first time scientists, at places
like IBM, are moving beyond just theorizing
about them to actually envisioning how a finished
quantum computer would work.
In labs across the globe, the first building
blocks of the first quantum computers are
slowly becoming real.
The idea of quantum computing was introduced
in the early 1980s by physicist Richard Feynman,
and the field is still very much in its infancy.
But as a discipline it's turning a critical
corner as the theoretical interconnects with
the practical.
There’s more than one way to build a quantum
computer, and it’s still far too early to
know which--if any--of these approaches will
produce a working system.
But between all of these varied approaches
to tapping the quantum world, there’s one
common thread: it’s all about the qubit.
Unlike a bit, a qubit can exist as a 0, a
1, or in a state of superposition, which basically
means it is both a 0 and a 1 at the same time.
This is part of the quantum properties, where
things are anything but intuitive.
“You start with a sea of all possible answers
in your quantum states, and you design your
algorithm to peel away the wrong answers so
that the right answer emerges,” says Matthias
Steffen, manager of the experimental quantum
computing research team at IBM Research.
Rather than considering one solution to a
problem at a time, you can consider multiple
possible solutions simultaneously.
Researchers at the Air Force Research Lab
(AFRL) have described a novel way to build
a simple quantum computer.
The idea: rather than using a set of not-always-reliable
interferometers to measure the inputs and
outputs of data encoded in photons, they want
to freeze their interferometers in glass using
holograms, making their properties more stable.
That way researchers could stack the holograms
to perform simple quantum functions without
worrying about them losing their properties.
Quantum computing requires encoding information
into a quantum medium, and light is the most
obvious choice.
Photons don’t have mass and therefore don’t
interact much with external forces; things
like electrical interference or magnetic fields
do not interfere with the quantum state, and
photons travel straight through transparent
matter.
But light is also a bit tricky, because photons
don’t interact with each other well either.
Processing information in a photon at the
receiving end can be particularly problematic.
Another exciting step forward is the NIST
simulator, which is simply a single layer
of beryllium ions, hundreds of them stretching
across a circular plane less than one millimeter
in diameter hovering inside a chamber known
as a Penning trap.
The quantum bit in this case is the outermost
electron of each ion.
By cooling the ions to near absolute zero
with a laser, and then hammering them with
carefully timed microwave and laser pulses,
the NIST physicists are able to get the electrons
to interact in controlled ways that mimic
complex quantum systems, that can’t be studied
practically in the laboratory.
Thus, it’s more a quantum system simulator
than a true quantum computer.
The NIST reports, though in order to benchmark
their creation experiments had to be carried
out with relatively weak interactions between
electrons since the system had to be simple
enough to be confirmed by a classical computer.
To check the efficacy of the first quantum
computers (or simulators) scientists will
need a working quantum computer--a paradox
that is going to lead to some fits and starts
along the way to building a true quantum computing
platform.
Because of the many considerable challenges,
most researchers are starting small, pouring
their brainpower and research dollars into
developing a single, stable qubit--and eventually
strings of tens, then hundreds, and then thousands
and tens of thousands of qubits.
Update complete.
