This is the silicon based quantum optics lab-on-a-chip. Credit: University of Bristol
The microprocessor inside a computer is a single multipurpose chip that has revolutionized people’s life, allowing them to use one machine to surf the web, check emails and keep track of finances. Now, researchers have pulled off the same feat for light in the quantum world by developing an optical chip that can process photons in an infinite number of ways.
It’s a major step forward in creating a quantum computer to solve problems such as designing new drugs, superfast database searches, and performing otherwise intractable mathematics that aren’t possible for super computers. The fully reprogrammable chip brings together a multitude of existing quantum experiments and can realise a plethora of future protocols that have not even been conceived yet.
Bristol PhD student Jacques Carolan, one of the researchers, added: “Once we wrote the code for each circuit, it took seconds to re-programme the chip, and milliseconds for the chip to switch to the new experiment. We carried out a year’s worth of experiments in a matter of hours. What we’re really excited about is using these chips to discover new science that we haven’t even thought of yet.” The device was made possible because the world’s leading quantum photonics group teamed up with Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT), the world’s leading telecommunications company.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-08/uob-noc081315.php
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