Researchers open the way for quantum computing in a real world situation

The quantum computing market is expected to reach $ 65 million by 2030, a hot topic for investors and scientists because it can solve incomprehensibly complex problems.

Drug discovery is one example. To understand the relationship of drugs, pharmaceutical companies may want to simulate the interaction of two molecules. The challenge is that each molecule consists of a few hundred atoms, and scientists must model all the ways in which these atoms can arrange themselves when each molecule is introduced. The number of possible configurations is no more than the number of galaxies in the entire universe. Only a quantum computer can present, let alone solve, such expansive, dynamic data problems.

Common applications of quantum computers remains to be decades ago, when the research team in the university and private industry around the world to work on various aspects of technology.

A research team led by Xu Yi, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Virginia, has created a niche in the physics and application of photonic devices that capture and shape light for a variety of applications such as communications and computers. The research group created the system of quantum computing platform, which drastically reduced the number of tools needed to make quantum speed, the photonic chip the size of a penny.

Olivier Pfister, professor of quantum optics and the new quantum at UVA, and Hansuek Lee, assistant professor at Korean Advanced Science and Technology, contributed to this success.

Nature of the relationship has just released the team’s experimental results, which squeezed quantum microcomb the chip. Two of the members of the Yi Group, Zijiao Yang, a Ph. D. student in physics, and Mandana Jahanbozorgi, Ph. D. student in electrical and computer engineering, is the co-lead author of the paper. The grant from the National Science Foundation Engineering Quantum Integrated Platform for quantum Communication Program supported this research.

Quantum computing promises a completely new way of processing information. The desktop or laptop computer a new phase in a long series of bits. A bit can contain only one of two values: zero or one. Quantum computers process information in parallel, which means that you have to wait for a sequence of information to be used before you can calculate more. The new system is called qubit, a mixture that can be one and zero at the same time. The quantum of the path or qumode covers the entire spectrum of variables in the one and the zero values to the right of the decimal point.

Researchers are working in a variety of effective ways to produce a large number qumodes necessary to make quantum velocity.

Yi’s photonics-based approach is attractive for the light field is full spectrum; every light in the wave spectrum has the potential to be a quantum group. It is that the entangled light field, the light will reach the quantum state.

They are probably good optical fibers that provide information on the Internet. Within each optical fiber, lasers are used many different colors in parallel, a condition called multiplexing. Yi brought with him the multiplexing concept of the quantum state.

Micro is the key to the team’s success. UVA is the pioneer and leader in the use of optical multiplexing to create a system of quantum computing platform. In 2014, Pfister, the group managed to produce more than 3,000 quantum methods of mass optical systems. However, using this method with many quanta requires a large amount of space for thousands of mirrors, lenses and other elements that may be required to perform the algorithm and other work.

“The future of the field is integrated quantum optics,” said Pfister. “If not by transmitting quantum optics experiments of uncertain vision, the light laboratories in field-compatible photonic chips Bona Fide quantum technology will be able to see the light of day. We are very happy to have been able to win the UVA the world’s experts in quantum photonics like Xu Yi, and I am very happy with the new perspective of these results is open to us.”

Yi’s group created a quantum source in the ring-shaped, millimeter-sized structure of the optical microresonator that envelops the photons and creates a microcobbe, a tool that efficiently converts photons from single to many wavelengths. Light circulates around the ring to build optical power. This power build-up increases the probability of the interaction of photons, which create a quantum entanglement in the light field of the microcomb.

Through multiplexing, and the team confirmed the generation 40 qumodes of a microresonator with chip, proving that multiplexing quantum approach can work in integrated photonic platforms. It’s just the number you can measure.

“Guess what, if you optimize the system, you can generate thousands of qumodes from a single tool,” Yi said.

But the multiplexing technique opens the way to quantum computing for real-world situations where the error is inevitable. This also applies to classic computers. The quantum of the land is much more delicate than the usual the land.

The number of qubits required to compensate for the error can exceed one million dollars, along with the corresponding increase in the number of devices. Multiplexing reduces the number of tools required by two or three orders of magnitude.

“the photonics-based provides a system of two additional benefits in quantum computing Quest. Quantum computing platform, which uses superconducting electronic parts, requires the conditions of temperature cooling. Since the photon has no mass, quantum computers in photonic integrated chips can run or sleep at room temperature. In addition, Lee created the microresonator on a silicon chip using a standard that used various carved techniques. This is important because it means that the resonator or quantum sources can be mass-produced.

“We are proud to push the boundaries of engineers in quantum computing and accelerate the transition from mass to light for integrated photonics,” Yi said. “We will continue to explore how we can integrate tools and parts into the photonics-based quantum computing platform and optimize its performance.”