ARMONK, N.Y., May 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM)
scientists have achieved an important milestone toward creating
sophisticated quantum devices that could become a key component of
quantum computers. As detailed in the peer-review journal
Nano Letters, the scientists have
shot an electron through a III-V semiconductor nanowire integrated
on silicon for the first time.
IBM scientists are driving multiple horizons in quantum
computing, from the technology for the next decade based on
superconducting qubits, towards novel quantum devices that could
push the scaling limit of today's microwave technology down to the
nanometer scale and that do not rely on superconducting components,
opening a path towards room-temperature operation.
Now, IBM scientists in Zurich
have made a crucial fundamental breakthrough in their paper
Ballistic one-dimensional InAs nanowire cross-junction
interconnects. Using their recently developed
Template-Assisted-Selective-Epitaxy (TASE) technique to build
ballistic cross-directional quantum communication links, they
pioneered devices which can coherently link multiple functional
nanowires for the reliable transfer of quantum information across
nanowire networks. The nanowire acts as a perfect guide for the
electrons, such that the full quantum information of the electron
(energy, momentum, spin) can be transferred without losses.
By solving some major technical hurdles of controlling the size,
shape, position and quality of III-V semiconductors integrated on
Si, ballistic one-dimensional quantum transport has been
demonstrated. While the experiments are still on a very fundamental
level, such nanowire devices may pave the way towards
fault-tolerant, scalable electronic quantum computing in the
future.
The paper's lead author, IBM scientist Dr. Johannes Gooth, noted
that the milestone has implications for the development of quantum
computing. By enabling fully ballistic connections where particles
are in flight at the nanoscale, the quantum system offers
exponentially larger computational space.
Earlier this year, IBM launched an industry-first initiative to
build commercially available universal quantum
computing systems. The planned "IBM Q" quantum systems and
services will be delivered via the IBM Cloud platform and will
deliver solutions to important problems where patterns cannot be
seen by classical computers because the data doesn't exist and the
possibilities needed to explore to get to the answer are too
enormous to ever be processed by classical systems.
For more information on IBM Q systems, please visit:
https://www.research.ibm.com/ibm-q/
Chris Sciacca
IBM Research
cia@zurich.ibm.com
+41 44 724 8443
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SOURCE IBM