Experiments with entangled photons have led the way in the burgeoning fields of quantum information, communication and computation in the last decade. Their biggest drawback has always been low photon-detection efficiencies, which has limited their potential applications.
Now, a joint experiment by Australian and US labs has fixed this problem, doubling the previous record in entangled photon-detection ratio to 62 per cent, and closing the detection ‘loophole’ in the strange phenomenon of quantum steering.
Dr Marcelo de Almeida, The University of Queensland
Prof Andrew White, ARC Centre for Engineered Quantum Systems (EQuS)
Prof Howard Wiseman, Griffith University
http://www.uq.edu.au/news/index.html?article=24252
Sydney researcher have developed the narrowest conducting wires in silicon ever made – just four atoms wide and one atom tall – and shown them to have the same electrical current carrying capability of copper. Despite their astonishingly tiny diameter – 10,000 times thinner than a human hair – these wires have exceptionally good electrical properties, raising hopes they will serve to connect atomic-scale components in the quantum computers of tomorrow.
The wires were made by precisely placing chains of phosphorus atoms within a silicon crystal, according to the study, which includes researchers from the University of Melbourne and Purdue University in the US.
Bent Weber, Prof Michelle Simmons; ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology, University of New South Wales.
Science; http://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-technology/wires-shrink-atomic-scale
This week on radio, Tim Thwaites is talking about predicting asthma attacks; black hole spin; cyberstalking; ancient Egyptian prostheses; and more Read the full article →
Australian engineers and physicists have developed a ‘single electron reader’, one of the key building blocks needed to make a quantum computer. Their work was published online by Nature on Monday 27 September.
These pages contain background resources for the paper. Read the full article →
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. Read the full article →
