Nano-diamond qubits and photonic crystals

Washington, D.C. (November 30, 2010) -- Quantum information processing is arguably one of the most fascinating facets of modern quantum physics.

A quantum computer operates with quantum bits (qubits) as units of information. Obeying the laws of quantum mechanics, such a computer would be capable of addressing several of the most difficult computational tasks unsolvable with present technology. In the past few decades, scientists learned to perform room-sized experiments to optically control and read out a small number of qubits.

Now, researchers in Germany have successfully fabricated a rudimentary quantum computing hybrid system using electronic excitations in nano-diamonds as qubits and optical nanostructures, so-called photonic crystals with tailored optical properties. This architecture may allow integration of multi-qubit systems on a single micrometer-sized chip for future quantum computers.

"Our results suggest a strategy for scaling up quantum information to large-scale systems, which has yet to be done," says Janik Wolters, researcher, at Humboldt Universität in Berlin. "We regard our experiment as a milestone on the long road toward on-chip integrated quantum information processing systems, bringing the dream of a quantum computer closer to reality."

Wolters and colleagues present their research in the American Institute of Physics' Applied Physics Letters.

The article, "Enhancement of the zero phonon line emission from a single nitrogen vacancy center in a nanodiamond via coupling to a photonic crystal cavity" by Janik Wolters, Andreas W. Schell, Günter Kewes, Nils Nüsse, Max Schoengen, Henning Döscher, Thomas Hannappel, Bernd Löchel, Michael Barth, and Oliver Benson appears in the journal Applied Physics Letters. See: http://link.aip.org/link/applab/v97/i14/p141108/s1

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