Semiconductor Quantum Bit Achieves 2-qubit Operations
- Technological fields
- Cutting-edge Technologies
- Keyword
- Semiconductor quantum dots
- Charge qubits
- Quantum computer
- Laboratory organization
- NTT Basic Research Laboratories
Overview
Quantum computers are expected to possess computational capability far exceeding that of conventional computers as a result of super-parallelism based on the superposition principle peculiar to quantum mechanics. As a basic element for conveying information, the quantum computer uses a quantum bit (qubit), which can encode any superposition of ‘0’ and ‘1’. In this study, we made semiconductor qubits by using nanofabrication and high-speed pulse techniques and demonstrated 2-qubit operations, an important element of quantum information processing.
Features
- Quantum information encoded by whether an electron resides in the left or right dot of a dot pair
- All-electrical control taking advantage of the properties of semiconductors
- First demonstration of 2-qubit operations using an electrically controlled semiconductor qubit
- More than one type of 2-qubit operation-both controlled-NOT and swap, achieved in one step
Application scenarios
- When quantum computers become a reality, it will be possible to perform in a short time tasks that would be formidable for conventional computers, such as factorization of a large prime integer, a basis of current RSA (Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman) cryptography or searches of huge databases.
- The technology described here is making headway in basic research toward quantum computers.
- The results of this study have been obtained through joint research with Tokyo Institute of Technology.
