Smashing the quantum speed record

A group of physicists at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology (CQC²T) at The University of New South Wales (UNSW) has built a super-fast version of the central building block of a quantum computer.

The research team has achieved the first 2-qubit gate between atom qubits in silicon—a major milestone in the team’s quest to build an atom-scale quantum computer, a vision first outlined by scientists 20 years ago.

A 2-qubit gate is the central building block of any quantum computer, and the UNSW team’s version of it is the fastest ever to be demonstrated in silicon, completing an operation in 0.8 nanoseconds, which is ~200 times faster than other existing spin-based two-qubit gates.

2018 Australian of the Year, Professor Michelle Simmons, who is an ARC Australian Laureate Fellow and Director of CQC²T, says the result is the culmination of two decades’ worth of work, and has set the team up to shift the boundaries of what’s thought to be 'humanly possible'

	"WE’VE REALLY SHOWN THAT IT IS POSSIBLE TO CONTROL THE WORLD AT THE ATOMIC SCALE— AND THAT THE BENEFITS OF THE APPROACH ARE TRANSFORMATIONAL, INCLUDING THE REMARKABLE SPEED AT WHICH OUR SYSTEM OPERATES,” SAYS PROFESSOR SIMMONS.

 

Image: (Left to right) Professor Michelle Simmons, Dr Sam Gorman, Dr Yu He, Mr Ludwik Kranz, Dr Joris Keizer and Mr Daniel Keith. Credit: CQC2 T