University of New South Wales (UNSW) researchers have led an international team in placing an electron in a nano-sized device on a silicon chip in two different ways. The techniques are breakthroughs that represent a key step in the development of quantum computing. The team reports that it accurately placed a single electron in silicon, adding that it was not attached to an atom. The researchers call the artificial atom a quantum dot, and note that they did not have to place single atoms in precise locations in a silicon chip. The researchers also report they were involved in another project in which “nature’s own way,” or binding electrons to single atoms, was used to place electrons in a silicon chip. The research lays the foundation for efforts to observe and then control the electron’s spin to create a quantum bit. UNSW professors Andrew Dzurak and Andrea Morello worked with Ph.D. students Wee Han Lim and Kuan Yen Tan, University of Melbourne professor David Jamieson, and Helsinki University of Technology professor Mikko Mottonen on the projects.

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Leading representatives from academia, government, and industry recently met at the Institute of Physics to discuss the most recent advances in quantum information processing (QIP) and how to make the most of new opportunities available in the field. Venture capitalist Hermann Hauser gave a presentation in which he argued that an additional 50 million to 100 million pounds needs to be invested to give the United Kingdom a global lead in a field with major market opportunities, potentially reaching 5 billion to 10 billion pounds in returns. Commercial applications associated with QIP progress include secure communications and giving computers the ability to solve problems traditional computers are unable to handle. In communications, quantum processing promises to deliver quantum cryptography, while in computer processing the benefits will come from quantum systems’ ability to exist in mutually contradictory states simultaneously, which allows computers to explore a far wider range of possibilities than conventional machines. “There is spectacular potential in the field of sensors, quantum cryptography, and computing,” says Imperial College London professor Sir Peter Knight. “The U.K. started the second quantum revolution with the exploitation of quantum coherence in 1990 and now we need to ensure that we maintain a lead.”

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European researchers working on the Qubits Applications integrated project (QAP) are trying to solve some of the fundamental hurdles preventing real quantum computing applications. A group of 35 European scientists and industrial researchers are studying how to directly exploit quantum phenomena such as uncertainty, entanglement, and other aspects that are not fully understood. “We are not looking to create a quantum computer directly,” says QAP co-coordinator Ian Walmsley. “Other people are working on that, and it will take a long time to solve that problem.” Walmsley says QAP is working on some of the problems facing real-world quantum applications that could be deployed today that contain problems that need to be solved for quantum computing anyway, such as the storage of information encoded on a photon. “But by focusing on these problems, we can perhaps create important new products that could be developed in the short and medium term, and we could solve some of the fundamental problems affecting the advent of quantum computing,” he says. The researchers are exploring issues such as the storage of quantum information and transmission of certain quantum states, like entanglement, over long distances using repeaters. The researchers also will be examining quantum applications for the simulation of exceedingly complex problems. The project’s multidisciplinary nature is a major advantage, as computer scientists, applied mathematicians, experimental physicists, and industrial scientists and engineers are all contributing unique and diverse views and expertise, Walmsley says.

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