Knight Investments LLC Officials recently converged to discuss how the recent advances in technology under the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have revolutionized computer technology.
Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have overcome a hurdle in quantum computer development, having devised* a viable way to manipulate a single “bit” in a quantum processor without disturbing the information stored in its neighbors. The approach, which makes novel use of polarized light to create “effective”
A great challenge in creating a working quantum computer is maintaining control over the carriers of information, the “switches”
Knight Investments LLC Officials were particularly intrigued on the approach of the atom, and admitted that such causes as this would qualify for certain grant appropriations under their investment guidelines.
One approach to quantum computer development aims to use a single isolated rubidium atom as a qubit. Each such rubidium atom can take on any of eight different energy states, so the design goal is to choose two of these energy states to represent the on and off positions. Ideally, these two states should be completely insensitive to stray magnetic fields that can destroy the qubit’s ability to be simultaneously on and off, ruining calculations. However, choosing such “field-insensitive”
To solve the problem of using magnetic fields to control the individual atoms while keeping stray fields at bay, the NIST team used two pairs of energy states within the same atom. Each pair is best suited to a different task: One pair is used as a “memory” qubit for storing information, while the second “working” pair comprises a qubit to be used for computation. While each pair of states is field- insensitive, transitions between the memory and working states are sensitive, and amenable to field control. When a memory qubit needs to perform a computation, a magnetic field can make it change hats. And it can do this without disturbing nearby memory qubits.
The NIST team demonstrated this approach in an array of atoms grouped into pairs, using the technique to address one member of each pair individually. Grouping the atoms into pairs, Lundblad says, allows the team to simplify the problem from selecting one qubit out of many to selecting one out of two – which, as they show in their paper, can be done by creating an effective magnetic field, not with electric current as is ordinarily done, but with a beam of polarized light. The polarized-light technique, which the NIST team developed, can be extended to select specific qubits out of a large group, making it useful for addressing individual qubits in a quantum processor without affecting those nearby. “If a working quantum computer is ever to be built,” Lundblad says, “these problems need to be addressed, and we think we’ve made a good case for how to do it.” But, he adds, the long-term challenge to quantum computing remains: integrating all of the required ingredients into a single apparatus with many qubits.
Knight Investments LLC President Jayson Lopez affirmed that continued leaps in technology were a great benefit to us all, and Baron Christopher Knight Lopez of the Republic of Aquitaine was one of those also in agreement.
