A Harvard physics department lab research team, led by Harvard Professors Mikhail Lukin and Markus Greiner and MIT’s Professor Vladan Vuletic formulated an exceptional kind of quantum computer, best-known as a quantum calculator. This is programmed by acquiring super-cooled rubidium atoms with lasers as well as composing them in a special command, then permiting quantum mechanics to perform the requisite calculations.
The quantum calculator could be utilized to cast light on a concourse of analyzable quantum processes, comprising the connectedness betwixt quantum mechanics and material properties, as well as it could look into new stages of matter and figure out analyzable real-world optimization issues. The method is delineated in a Nov. 30 paper publicized in the journal Nature.
In the future, quantum calculator will be able to cope in an instant with computational tasks that today’s computers would use for years. Tomorrow’s computers will develop their enormous computing power from their ability to simultaneously process the various pieces of information that are stored in the quantum state of elementary physical systems, such as atoms and photons.
But to have such an ability to operate, quantum calculator must exchange these pieces of information between their individual components. Photons are especially suitable for this, while particles of matter will be used for the storage and processing of information.
Currently, researchers are looking for methods that allow exchanging quantum information between photons and matter. Although this quantum calculator has already been experienced with sets of many thousands of atoms, a team of physicists \has now shown that quantum information can also be exchanged between atoms and photons in a controlled manner, reports a press release from the journal Nature.
“In addition, this quantum calculator offers the opportunity to check whether the quantum information stored in the photon has been correctly written in the atom without destroying the quantum state,” adds Lukin. This allows to determine at an early stage if a calculation process should be repeated due to a storage error.
The fact that, until very recently, no one had achieved the exchange of quantum information between individual photons and atoms is because the interaction between light particles and atoms is very weak. To understand this quantum calculator easily, researchers put the following example in the statement: “It is as if atoms and photons do not notice much of each other, as if two guests at a party barely spoke to each other and, therefore, only exchange a minimum amount of information. ”
The trick is in the interaction between atoms and photons
To improve this interaction, the scientists used a trick: They placed a rubidium atom between the mirrors of an optical resonator, and used a very weak laser to introduce individual photons into the resonator. The resonator mirrors reflected the photons several times, which improved the interaction between photons and atoms. Following the previous example, now the guests are seen more frequently, which increases the chances of being communicated.
