Researchers from Zurich and Germany managed to produce an optical transistor consisting of a single diode. This finding takes them one step closer to the development of a quantum computer.
Researchers from Zurich and Germany managed to produce an optical transistor consisting of a single diode. This finding takes them one step closer to the development of a quantum computer.
Network communication (Internet) and the computers themselves must be faster and more powerful nowadays. However, central processing units (CPUs) operating today limit the performance of computers, and this is because they generate an enormous amount of heat. The millions of transistor components that switch and amplify the electronic signals in the processors are responsible for this. One square centimeter of a processor can emit an amount of 125 watts of heat - ten times the amount emitted by a square centimeter of an electric plate.
These are the main reasons that have led scientists to try for a long time to find ways to develop integrated circuits that operate on the basis of photons instead of electrons. The reason for this lies not only in the fact that photons emit a lower amount of heat than electrons, but also in the fact that they enable much higher information transfer rates.
Although a large part of today's telecommunications engineering is based on the transmission of optical signals, the coding of the required information is produced using electronic switches. There is still a long way to go before the development of a suitable optical transistor. Researcher Vahid Sandoghdar, a professor from the Laboratory of Physical Chemistry at the University of Zurich explains that, "If we compare the current state of this technology to electronics, we can say that we are closer to vacuum tube-based amplifiers that worked in the fifties than to today's integrated circuits."
However, his research group has now achieved an important breakthrough thanks to the successful development of an optical transistor consisting of a single insulator. For this, they took advantage of the fact that the energy of each particle is discrete: when laser radiation hits a particle in its ground state, this radiation is absorbed. As a result the laser beam is attenuated. Following this, the excess energy that has been absorbed can be directed out through a second light beam. These actions occur because the excess energy from the beam changes the quantum state of the particle while amplifying the radiation beam. Such a mechanism is known as stimulated emission, which was described already ninety years ago by Albert Einstein and is also the basis for the existence of lasers.
One of the researchers involved in the study explains: "Amplification with a normal laser is achieved through a large number of chemical agents." By focusing a laser beam on a single tiny particle, the researchers have now succeeded in creating a stimulated emission based on only a single particle. What helped their success lies in the fact that at low temperatures, it seems that furods tend to increase their free surface area to react with light. For this, the researchers were required to cool the cold to minus 272 degrees Celsius - only one degree above absolute zero. In this case, the increased surface area matched the diameter of the focused beam.
By using one laser beam to create the appropriate quantum state of a single particle in a controlled manner, scientists will be able to significantly weaken or amplify a second laser beam. Such a mode of operation is identical to the mode of operation of a transistor in which an electric voltage can be used to modulate a second signal.
As a result, component parts such as the new transistor, based on a single diode, could pave the way for the future development of a quantum computer. The researcher explains: "Many years of research will still be required before photons will replace electrons in transistors and other electrical components. For now, scientists will be taught how to control and change quantum systems in a deliberate way - research that will advance them towards the dream of a quantum computer."
6 תגובות
In my opinion, there is a reason why to this day, despite the great efforts (including the secret efforts of the intelligence agencies), no one has succeeded in developing a quantum computer, not even one that works in laboratory conditions and performs very simple calculations.
I think (similarly to Einstein) that the quantum theory is incomplete and such a computer is not possible to implement.
There should be an "optical computer" and not a "quantum computer". An optical computer is based on optical signals, and that is what is being developed here. The term quantum computer usually refers to computational algorithms that are based on the superposition principle of quantum theory, which is something completely different (although the research in question is also based on properties of the molecule that are a result of quantum theory)
What does it matter, the competition between the companies today is not that high (even though it is more than what can be expected in our company)
Even if it sat ready in the closet, they will take it out step by step without any breakthrough, but only when necessary.
But I believe that the real breakthrough will come from the development of computers based on the structure of the human brain, below is an amazing lecture on the subject, it is recommended to watch in full screen (clicking on the button under the video window) -
http://ditwww.epfl.ch/cgi-perl/EPFLTV/home.pl/?page=video&lang=2&id=365&plugin=9&plugin=2&plugin=3&checkplugin=1
Even if they manage to operate a quantum computer under laboratory conditions it will be a tremendous achievement. Over time the technology will develop and there will be quantum computers that will work at room temperature, it's all a matter of time.
Maybe I have little faith, but I don't think this thing will catch on if they don't find a way for this thing to work "at room temperature" (or even at a temperature relatively close to it). Somehow cooling the processor to minus 272 degrees doesn't seem very practical to me.