Scientists can sustain qubits 60x longer and have developed the first quantum photonic circuit

Sustaining Qubits

When the quantum computer was imagined 30 years ago, it was revered for its potential to quickly and accurately complete practical tasks often considered impossible for mere humans and for conventional computers. But, there was one big catch: Tiny-scale quantum effects fall apart too easily to be practical for reliably powering computers. Now, a team of scientists in Japan may have overcome this obstacle. Using laser light, they have developed a precise, continuous control technology giving 60 times more success than previous efforts in sustaining the lifetime of "qubits," the unit that quantum computers encode.

First Quantum Photonic Circuit

Whether for use in safe data encryption, ultrafast calculation of huge data volumes or so-called quantum simulation of highly complex systems: Optical quantum computers are a source of hope for tomorrow’s computer technology. For the first time, scientists now have succeeded in placing a complete quantum optical structure on a chip, as outlined in the “Nature Photonics” journal. This fulfills one condition for the use of photonic circuits in optical quantum computers.

Ref: Fully integrated quantum photonic circuit with an electrically driven light source. Nature Photonics (26 September 2016) | DOI10.1038/nphoton.2016.178