
A light touch: A stylized version of a racetrack nanosandblasted on lithium niobate, where photons are coaxed to interact with each other under low energy conditions.
To process information, photons must interact. However, these tiny packets of light want nothing to do with each other, each passing by without altering the other. Now, researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology have coaxed photons into interacting with one another with unprecedented efficiency — a key advance toward realizing long-awaited quantum optics technologies for computing, communication and remote sensing.
The team, led by Yuping Huang, an associate professor of physics and director of the Center for Quantum Science and Engineering, brings us closer to that goal with a nano-scale chip that facilitates photon interactions with much higher efficiency than any previous system. The new method, reported as a memorandum in the Sept. 18 issue of Optica, works at very low energy levels, suggesting that it could be optimized to work at the level of individual photons — the holy grail for room-temperature quantum computing and secure quantum communication.
“We’re pushing the boundaries of physics and optical engineering in order to bring quantum and all-optical signal processing closer to reality,” said Huang.
To achieve this advance, Huang’s team fired a laser beam into a racetrack-shaped microcavity carved into a sliver of crystal. As the laser light bounces around the racetrack, its confined photons interact with one another, producing a harmonic resonance that causes some of the circulating light to change wavelength.
That isn’t an entirely new trick, but Huang and colleagues, including graduate student Jiayang Chen and senior research scientist Yong Meng Sua, dramatically boosted its efficiency by using a chip made from lithium niobate on insulator, a material that has a unique way of interacting with light. Unlike silicon, lithium niobate is difficult to chemically etch with common reactive gases. So, the Stevens’ team used an ion-milling tool, essentially a nanosandblaster, to etch a tiny racetrack about one-hundredth the width of a human hair.
Before defining the racetrack structure, the team needed to apply high-voltage electrical pulses to create carefully calibrated areas of alternating polarity, or periodic poling, that tailor the way photons move around the racetrack, increasing their probability of interacting with eachother.
Chen explained that to both etch the racetrack on the chip and tailor the way photons move around it, requires dozens of delicate nanofabrication steps, each requiring nanometer precision. “To the best of our knowledge, we’re among the first groups to master all of these nanofabrication steps to build this system — that’s the reason we could get this result first.”
Moving forward, Huang and his team aim to boost the crystal racetrack’s ability to confine and recirculate light, known as its Q-factor. The team has already identified ways to increase their Q-factor by a factor of at least 10, but each level up makes the system more sensitive to imperceptible temperature fluctuations – a few thousands of a degree – and requires careful fine-tuning.
Still, the Stevens team say they’re closing in on a system capable of generating interactions at the single-photon level reliably, a breakthrough that would allow the creation of many powerful quantum computing components such as photonics logic gates and entanglement sources, which along a circuit, can canvass multiple solutions to the same problem simultaneously, conceivably allowing calculations that could take years to be solved in seconds.
We could still be a while from that point, Chen said, but for quantum scientists the journey will be thrilling. “It’s the holy grail,” said Chen, the paper’s lead author. “And on the way to the holy grail, we’re realizing a lot of physics that nobody’s done before.”
Learn more: Stevens Team Closes In On “Holy Grail” of Room Temperature Quantum Computing Chips
The Latest on: Quantum computing chips
via Google News
The Latest on: Quantum computing chips
- Archer Materials higher on hitting commercial milestone with first patent from Japan for 12CQ quantum computing chipon January 19, 2021 at 4:40 pm
The patent gives the company access to the high-value Japanese market – a top-five global economy - for the 12CQ chip. It is also the first step ...
- Archer Materials secures first patent for its quantum computing chipon January 19, 2021 at 4:30 pm
CEO Dr Mohammad Choucair talks Proactive's Andrew Scott through the significance of being granted a Japanese patent for their quantum computing chip technology. It's the first granted patent ...
- DOC’S PRESCRIPTION: Semiconductors play pivotal role in U.S. economyon January 19, 2021 at 11:43 am
Semiconductors have played a critical role in America’s economy, job creation, technology leadership and national security over the past six decades. They are the foundation upon which the operation ...
- The incredible physics behind quantum computingon January 15, 2021 at 2:11 am
Can computers do calculations in multiple universes? Scientists are working on it. Step into the world of quantum computing.
- These five AI developments will shape 2021 and beyondon January 14, 2021 at 7:27 am
Despite the travesties of 2020, artificial intelligence has quickened its progress. Baidu upped its performance across vaccines, autonomous vehicles, language processing, and quantum computing.
- CFX Quantum – Visionary approach, trusted and vestedon January 14, 2021 at 5:26 am
That’s why it is so intriguing to see that CFX Quantum and its service ZeroOne are anything but such a disruption. CFX Quantum and its service ZeroOne present a rarity in the crypto world in that this ...
- AFRL measures first superconducting quantum bits (qubit), first-ever demo for a DOD service labon January 13, 2021 at 9:21 am
Researchers at the Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate here have measured the energy relaxation and coherence times of superconducting quantum bits (qubits), two ...
- You can find a $180K solar-powered car, qubit controls, and breathing tips at the NL Tech Pavilion at CES 2021on January 12, 2021 at 2:08 pm
The 90 Dutch companies in the NL Tech Pavilion at CES 2021 represent every possible use of technology as a problem-solving tool, from air quality and cars to sustainability and violence. This ...
- Quantum Dot Market 2020 Growth and Forecast Survey Till 2026on January 11, 2021 at 2:51 pm
The Quantum dots market is expected to exceed more than US$ 32.0 billion by 2024 growing at around 60% CAGR for the forecast period. You Can Browse Full Report Here: The main driving factors for ...
- Electrically switchable qubit can tune between storage and fast calculation modeson January 11, 2021 at 8:07 am
To perform calculations, quantum computers need qubits to act as elementary building blocks that process and store information. Now, physicists have produced a new type of qubit that can be switched ...
via Bing News