Physics News

Image 1: In his laboratory, Petta has trapped one or two electrons in microscopic corrals created by applying voltages to miniscule electrodes on a wafer of semiconductor. (Princeton University, Office of Communications, Brian Wilson)Image 2: Jason Petta, an assistant professor of physics, has found a way to alter the property of a lone electron without disturbing the trillions of electrons in its immediate surroundings. Such a feat is an important step toward developing future types of quantum computers. (Princeton University, Office of Communications, Brian Wilson)

"If you can take a small enough object like a single electron and isolate it well enough from external perturbations, then it will behave quantum mechanically for a long period of time," said Petta.
"In the quest to build a quantum computer with electron spin qubits, nuclear spins are typically a nuisance," said Guido Burkard, a theoretical physicist at the University of Konstanz in Germany.
"Our approach is really to look at the building blocks of the system, to think deeply about what the limitations are and what we can do to overcome them," Petta said. "But we are still at the level of just manipulating one or two quantum bits, and you really need hundreds to do something useful."
"It's a one-day-at-a-time approach," Petta said.