TO GO mainstream, quantum computers will have to be made in bulk. A working quantum chip brings that goal a step nearer.
Japanese researchers have already shown that two quantum bits or 鈥渜ubits鈥� can be entangled on the surface of a chip (New Scientist, 22 February 2003, p 16). Now two separate groups at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder, Colorado, () and at Yale University () have used a photon in a cavity to transmit data between two qubits on a superconducting chip. One qubit alters the state of the photon, which then changes the state of the other qubit.
It gets better: one NIST group has also created a short-term quantum memory by delaying the information held by the photon for 10 nanoseconds before transferring it to the other qubit.
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