Molecular spins show promise as quantum bits

23 Nov 2020

Spin doctors: Berk Kovos, Sam Bayliss and Peter Mintun (left to right) work on qubit technology at the University of Chicago. (Courtesy: Pratiti Deb/University of Chicago)

The states of molecular spins in a crystal can be detected optically using the polarization of the photons they emit, researchers in the US have shown. This allowed the team to prepare and precisely read out spin states within molecules – a capability that could be used to engineer quantum bits (qubits) with greater flexibility and control than possible using other platforms.

So far, the most successful platforms for quantum computing have proved to be trapped-ion qubits and superconducting qubits. However, both technologies have significant drawbacks. Ion qubits require high vacuum and electromagnetic traps, whereas superconducting qubits must be made from identical quantum circuits, which are extremely difficult to produce with the required consistency. One possible alternative is the diamond nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centre, which occurs when two adjacent carbon atoms in a diamond lattice are replaced by a single nitrogen atom.

 

Gold nanotubes and infrared light could treat asbestos-related cancer

20 Nov 2020

Confocal fluorescence image of gold nanotubes (green) in a mesothelioma cell. Scale bar: 20 µm. (Courtesy: Arsalan Azad)

Gold nanotubes can destroy cancer cells, according to physicists and medical researchers at the University of Cambridge and the University of Leeds. They found that their nanotubes, which were tuned to have strong near-infrared absorption, can enter mesothelioma cells and destroy them when heated with laser light.

Every year, more than 2700 people in the UK are diagnosed with mesothelioma. This cancer usually grows in the pleural membrane, a thin lining that surrounds the lungs. The vast majority of cases are caused by exposure to asbestos dust. When damaged, asbestos releases microscopic fibres that can be inhaled. These fibres can then migrate through lung tissue into the pleural membrane and cause mesothelioma to develop. Asbestos has been banned in the UK since the late 1990s, but mesothelioma can take from 15 to 60 years to develop.

 

Perovskites could be platforms for exciton condensates

24 Nov 2020 Isabelle Dumé

Laser pumping applied on a perovskite monolayer and the emerging exciton vortices. Courtesy: D Zhang

Organic–inorganic perovskite materials are usually studied in the context of making solar cells and other photovoltaic devices. Now researchers from the Institute of Semiconductors at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing have shown that these hybrid halide materials could also be ideal platforms for realizing Bose–Einstein condensates of excitons (electron–hole pairs). Such condensates, which appear as vortex patterns, could be produced at liquid nitrogen temperatures – positively balmy, by the standard of the field – thanks to the long lifetimes of the excitons in the materials and their huge binding energies.

Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) occurs when all the bosonic atoms or particles in a gas collapse into the same quantum ground state and can therefore be described by the same wavefunction. Such collapses are triggered by cooling the gas until the de Broglie wavelength of its constituent atoms or particles is comparable to the distance between them. Once in this state, the atoms or particles behave as a superfluid, flowing without friction.

 

Why Google builds quantum computers, the LGBT+ experience in physics, CERN’s carbon footprint

01 Oct 2020 Hamish Johnston

In this episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast Google’s Sergio Boixo explains why the tech giant is building its own quantum computers. Boixo will be a plenary speaker at the upcoming Quantum 2020 virtual conference, and we will be interviewing other plenary speakers in future episodes of the podcast.

Next up is Ramon Barthelemy – a physicist at the University of Utah who has surveyed more than 300 LGBT+ physicists about their careers. Barthelemy chats with Physics World’s Matin Durrani about the survey and the issues faced by the LGBT+ physics community, which are also described in a paper in the European Journal of Physics.

 

Pathways to scalable quantum technologies

15 Oct 2020 Hamish Johnston

This episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast features interviews with two leaders in the race to build practical quantum computers.

Michelle Simmons is director of Australia’s Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology. She talks about how her early work on fabricating solar cells kindled a passion for building electronic devices that she now pursues by leading a research group at the University of New South Wales that is building solid-state quantum computing devices at the atomic scale.

 

Hunting dark matter with quantum sensors, working abroad brings career advantages

19 Nov 2020 Hamish Johnston

Dark-matter detectors usually conjure up images of large underground facilities, but relatively small quantum sensors such as atomic clocks and magnetometers have also joined the search for the elusive stuff. In this episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast, Andrei Derevianko at the University of Nevada, Reno explains how it is done.

 

Quantum software company tackles big computing challenges

26 Nov 2020 Hamish Johnston

“

My mission is to demystify quantum computing,” says Ilyas Khan, who is founder and chief executive of Cambridge Quantum Computing (CQC) – a UK-based provider of software for quantum computers. Khan is our guest in this episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast, and he explains how CQC helps its clients use quantum computers to solve big problems in the design of pharmaceuticals, machine learning and cybersecurity.

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9/11/2020