Ten Billion Bits of Entanglement Achieved in Silicon

Scientists from Oxford University have made a significant step towards an ultrafast quantum computer by successfully generating 10 billion bits of quantum entanglement in silicon for the first time — entanglement is the key ingredient that promises to make quantum computers far more powerful than conventional computing devices.

The researchers used high magnetic fields and low temperatures to produce entanglement between the electron and the nucleus of an atom of phosphorous embedded in a highly purified silicon crystal. The electron and the nucleus behave as a tiny magnet, or ‘spin’, each of which can represent a bit of quantum information. Suitably controlled, these spins can interact with each other to be coaxed into an entangled state — the most basic state that cannot be mimicked by a conventional computer.

An international team from the UK, Japan, Canada and Germany, report their achievement in the journal Nature. Continue reading…