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takyon writes:

Making an unconventional computer using conventional technology

In their quest to build a quantum computer, researchers from RIKEN are turning to well-established, silicon-based manufacturing techniques currently used in the electronics industry. [...] Making a fully functional quantum computer will require connecting huge numbers of qubits—of the order of a 100 million or more.

[...] Keiji Ono and colleagues from the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science and the Toshiba Corporation in Japan, in collaboration with researchers from the United States, are investigating the properties of qubits produced by imperfections or defects in silicon MOSFETs. In particular, they are exploring their potential for developing quantum computing devices that are compatible with current manufacturing technologies.

"Companies like IBM and Google are developing quantum computers that use superconductors," explains Ono. "In contrast, we are attempting to develop a quantum computer based on the silicon manufacturing techniques currently used to make computers and smart phones. The advantage of this approach is that it can leverage existing industrial knowledge and technology."

After cooling a silicon MOSFET to 1.6 kelvin (−271.6 degrees Celsius), the researchers measured its electrical properties while applying a magnetic field and a microwave field. They found that when the silicon MOSFET was neither fully turned on nor off, a pair of defects in the silicon MOSFET formed two quantum dots in close vicinity to each other. This 'double quantum dot' generated qubits from the spin of electrons in the dots. It also produced quantum effects that can be used to control these qubits.

Hole Spin Resonance and Spin-Orbit Coupling in a Silicon Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor (DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.156802) (DX)

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