Posted on behalf of the University of New South Wales

A research team led by Australian engineers has created the first working quantum bit based on a single atom in silicon, opening the way to ultra-powerful quantum computers of the future.

In a landmark paper published today in the journal Nature, the team describes how it was able to both read and write information using the spin, or magnetic orientation, of an electron bound to a single phosphorus atom embedded in a silicon chip.

“For the first time, we have demonstrated the ability to represent and manipulate data on the spin to form a quantum bit, or ‘qubit’,  the basic unit of data for a quantum computer,” says Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak. “This really is the key advance towards realising a silicon quantum computer based on single atoms.”

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This week on radio, Tim Thwaites is talking about predicting asthma attacks; black hole spin; cyberstalking; ancient Egyptian prostheses; and more [continue reading…]

9 December 2010

Here’s today’s stories from the physics congress in Melbourne.

Good Aussie home wanted for gravitational wave detector
The physics of money – testing the stability of the system
Superconductors reveal their secrets
First results from the ATLAS experiment
Sun sneaks up on winter workers
Watching electrons in action
Laser beams on steroids
Light rays treat tumours
Contact [continue reading…]

Wednesday 8 December 2010

Today’s stories from the physics conference in Melbourne include:

Tomorrow’s technology pioneers recognised today

• From the laser to quantum optics
  Prof Kostya (Ken) Ostrikov (Kostya.Ostrikov@csiro.au), a CSIRO scientist who set the ground rules for constructing new materials atom by atom using collections of charged particles known as plasmas;
• Teleportation
  Prof Hans-Albert Bachor (hans.bachor@anu.edu.au) from the Australian National University (ANU) whose work on the graininess or particle nature of light is leading to new technologies such as quantum encryption and teleportation;
• Laser controllers
  A/Prof Robert Scholten (scholten@unimelb.edu.au), a University of Melbourne physicist who has established a thriving and profitable business which makes and exports laser controllers; and
• Acoustics of music
  Prof Joe Wolfe (j.wolfe@unsw.edu.au) of the University of New South Wales, an expert on the acoustics of music whose multimedia learning resources are accessed about 60,000 times a day.

Also:
Diamond dust adds sparkle to medical imaging
Electronic paper makes itself
Bionic valves without the batteries
Invisible fibres disappearing soon
Acquiring a better feel for disease
Healthy and unhealthy brain states – what role does electrical conductivity play?
Is that a diamond in your eye? [continue reading…]

7 December 2010

Here’s today’s stories from the physics congress in Melbourne.
Space storms threat to power and phones
Are solar flares damaging our ozone layer?
The future of nuclear science
Superconductors reveal their secrets
Dark matter: detecting the invisible
Pulsar found with 250,000 home computers
Lies, damn lies and climate change sceptics: what has really caused recent global warming?
Australians to play with the Large Hadron Collider

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Stories today at the physics congress in Melbourne

A cubic kilometre of South Pole ice looking for dark matter
From the chaos of stirring coffee to stirring rocks and cleaning up polluted ground water
Silk microchips for instant blood tests
Diamond’s light touch
Enlightenment on a chip
A single electron reader for silicon quantum computing
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These pages contain background resources for the paper. [continue reading…]

A team led by UNSW engineers and physicists have developed one of the key building blocks needed to make a quantum computer using silicon: a “single electron reader”. Their work was published today in Nature. [continue reading…]