What can the photonic chip be used for ? Can it give new ideas to make the quantum processors? Let's see what it does!
A multi-purpose optical chip which generates, manipulates and measures entanglement and mixture - two quantum phenomena which are essential driving forces for tomorrow's quantum computers - has been developed by researchers from the University of Bristol's Centre for Quantum Photonics. This work represents an important step forward in the race to develop a quantum computer.They've also used the same chip to measure mixture — an often unwanted effect from the environment, but one which they say can now be controlled and used to characterize quantum circuits, as well as being of fundamental interest to physicists.
The fundamental resource that drives a quantum computer is entanglement - the connection between two distant particles which Einstein famously called ‘spooky action at a distance’. The Bristol researchers have for the first time shown that this remarkable phenomenon can be generated, manipulated and measured entirely on a tiny silica chip. They have also used the same chip to measure mixture - an often unwanted effect from the environment, but a phenomenon which can now be controlled and used to characterize quantum circuits, as well as being of fundamental interest to physicists.
The chip, which performs several experiments that would each ordinarily be carried out on an optical bench the size of a large dining table, is 70 mm by 3 mm. It consists of a network of tiny channels which guide, manipulate and interact single photons and particles of light. Using eight reconfigurable electrodes embedded in the circuit, photon pairs can be manipulated and entangled, producing any possible entangled state of two photons or any mixed state of one photon.
The researchers would prefer to have a reconfigurable device which can perform a broad variety of tasks, much like our desktop PCs today and now this reconfigurable ability is what they have demonstrated. This device is approximately ten times more complex than previous experiments using this technology. It's exciting because we can perform many different experiments in a very straightforward way, using a single reconfigurable chip.The researchers, who have been developing quantum photonic chips for the past six years, are now working on scaling up the complexity of this device, and see this technology as the building block for the quantum computers of the future. This work is a significant advance is able to generate, manipulate and measure entanglement on a chip is an awesome achievement. Not only is it a key step towards the many quantum technologies— such as optical quantum computing — which are going to revolutionize our lives, it gives us much more opportunity to explore and play with some of the very weird quantum phenomena we still struggle to wrap our minds around.
They have made it so easy to dial up in seconds an experiment that used to take us months and they think it would not take more months to get a new generation of quantum computing through this idea of quantum photonic chip.
[via:Physorg]
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