PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Single electron reader opens path for quantum computing

Researchers develop key building block needed to make a quantum computer using silicon

2010-09-28
(Press-News.org) A team led by engineers and physicists at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, Australia, have developed one of the key building blocks needed to make a quantum computer using silicon: a "single electron reader". Their work was published today in Nature.

Quantum computers promise exponential increases in processing speed over today's computers through their use of the "spin", or magnetic orientation, of individual electrons to represent data in their calculations.

In order to employ electron spin, the quantum computer needs both a way of changing the spin state (write) and of measuring that change (read) to form a qubit – the equivalent of the bits in a conventional computer.

In creating the single electron reader, a team of engineers and physicists led by Dr Andrea Morello and Professor Andrew Dzurak, of the School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications at UNSW, has for the first time made possible the measurement of the spin of one electron in silicon in a single shot experiment. The team also includes researchers from the University of Melbourne and Aalto University in Finland.

"Our device detects the spin state of a single electron in a single phosphorus atom implanted in a block of silicon. The spin state of the electron controls the flow of electrons in a nearby circuit," said Dr Morello, the lead author of the paper, Single-shot readout of an electron spin in silicon.

"Until this experiment, no-one had actually measured the spin of a single electron in silicon in a single-shot experiment."

By using silicon—the foundation material of conventional computers—rather than light or the esoteric materials and approaches being pursued by other researchers, the device opens the way to constructing a simpler quantum computer, scalable and amenable to mass-production.

The team has built on a body of research that has put Australia at forefront of the race to construct a working quantum computer. In 1998 Bruce Kane, then at UNSW, outlined in Nature the concept for a silicon-based quantum computer, in which the qubits are defined by single phosphorus atoms in an otherwise ultra-pure silicon chip. The new device brings his vision closer.

"We expect quantum computers will be able to perform certain tasks much faster than normal computers, such as searching databases, modelling complex molecules or developing new drugs," says co-author Prof Andrew Dzurak. "They could also crack most modern forms of encryption."

"After a decade of work trying to build this type of single atom qubit device, this is a very special moment."

Now the team has created a single electron reader, they are working to quickly complete a single electron writer and combine the two. Then they will combine pairs of these devices to create a 2-bit logic gate – the basic processing unit of a quantum computer.

INFORMATION: The research team is part of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computer Technology, which is headquartered at UNSW. The team is led by Professor Dzurak and Dr Morello, with Mr Jarryd Pla and Dr Floris Zwanenburg as key supporting experimentalists. The paper's co-authors include Prof David Jamieson from the University of Melbourne; Dr Bob Clark, Australia's Chief Defence Scientist, and 10 other researchers from UNSW, The University of Melbourne, and Finland's Aalto University.

The research was funded by: the Australian, US, and NSW governments; UNSW; and the University of Melbourne.


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

2010 AAO-HNSF miniseminars: Monday, Sept. 27, 2010

2010-09-28
Boston, MA – The 2010 Annual Meeting & OTO EXPO of the American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF), the largest meeting of ear, nose, and throat doctors in the world, will convene September 26-29, 2010, in Boston, MA. Featuring more than 305 scientific research sessions, 594 posters, and several hundred instruction course hours for attendees, the annual meeting is a unique opportunity for journalists from around the world to cover breaking science and medical news. Reporters will have access to the latest research and clinical advances ...

2010 AAO-HNSF new research daily highlights: Monday, Sept. 27, 2010

2010-09-28
Inner Ear Stem-Cell Transplantation in Cochlear Cultures Presenters: Dylan K. Chan, MD, PhD; Saku Sinkkonen, MD, PhD; Alan G. Cheng, MD; Stefan Heller, PhD Time: 9:46 am Location: Room 209 Boston, MA – Researchers have developed an in vitro system to investigate hair-cell regeneration techniques and evaluate the ability of transplanted inner-ear stem-cell spheres to integrate into the organ of Corti and differentiate into mature hair cells. In a presentation at the 2010 AAO-HNSF Annual Meeting & OTO EXPO in Boston, researchers revealed that co-culture between inner-ear ...

Gut-invading worms turn enemy T cells into friends

2010-09-28
Intestinal worms sidestep the immune system by inducing the development of suppressive T cells, according to a study published on September 27th in the Journal of Experimental Medicine (www.jem.org). Immune T cells are essential for the clearance of invading microbes, including intestinal worms, but turning off immune responses is essential for avoiding collateral tissue destruction. This job falls in part to a population of suppressive T cells called regulatory T (T reg) cells. A team of researchers, led by Rick Maizels at the University of Edinburgh, show that gut-invading ...

Acupuncture not effective in stroke recovery

2010-09-28
Acupuncture does not appear to aid in stroke recovery, according to a new study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only) http://www.cmaj.ca/embargo/cmaj091113.pdf Acupuncture is often used to supplement traditional stroke rehabilitation, although its effectiveness is uncertain. It is necessary to have evidence of effectiveness from rigorous randomized clinical trials to recommend routine therapeutic use. This study, perhaps the most comprehensive to date as it includes trials published in English language and Asian journals, was ...

Mindfulness meditation may ease fatigue, depression in multiple sclerosis

2010-09-28
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Learning mindfulness meditation may help people who have multiple sclerosis (MS) with the fatigue, depression and other life challenges that commonly accompany the disease, according to a study published in the September 28, 2010, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. In the study, people who took an eight-week class in mindfulness meditation training reduced their fatigue and depression and improved overall quality of life compared to people with MS who received only usual medical care. The positive effects ...

NIH scientists freeze virus fragment in shape recognized by immune system

2010-09-28
One approach to an HIV vaccine is to teach the immune system to recognize certain protein structures on the viral surface and produce antibodies that bind to those structures and neutralize HIV. A strategy for designing such a vaccine involves identifying the key viral surface structures, snipping them off and developing a method to present these fragments to the immune system. When some parts of the surface of HIV are removed, however, they change shape such that antibodies no longer recognize and bind to them. A research team led by investigators at the Vaccine Research ...

Controlling bone formation to prevent osteoporosis

2010-09-28
Aging disrupts the balance between bone formation and bone destruction, resulting in osteoporosis, which is characterized by reduced bone mass and increased risk of fracture. Recent data have suggested that this imbalance is a result of a decrease in formation of bone forming osteoblast cells from mesenchymal cells upon aging. Instead, these cells form more fat cells. Insight into this age-related switch in cell type generation has now been provided by a team of researchers, led by Hiroshi Takayanagi, at Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan, working in mice. The data ...

JCI table of contents: Sept. 27, 2010

2010-09-28
EDITOR'S PICK: Controlling bone formation to prevent osteoporosis Aging disrupts the balance between bone formation and bone destruction, resulting in osteoporosis, which is characterized by reduced bone mass and increased risk of fracture. Recent data have suggested that this imbalance is a result of a decrease in formation of bone forming osteoblast cells from mesenchymal cells upon aging. Instead, these cells form more fat cells. Insight into this age-related switch in cell type generation has now been provided by a team of researchers, led by Hiroshi Takayanagi, at ...

VCU study: Researchers discover a drug combination that shrinks tumors in vivo

2010-09-28
RICHMOND, Va. (Sept. 27, 2010) – Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and VCU Massey Cancer Center researchers have shown that the impotence drug Viagra, in combination with doxorubicin, a powerful anti-cancer drug, enhances its anti-tumor efficacy in prostate cancer while alleviating the damage to the heart at the same time. For more than four decades the chemotherapeutic agent doxorubicin has been used to treat a number of human cancers, including that of the prostate. Despite doxorubicin's clinical efficacy for cancer treatment, its use is associated ...

LIMK plays a key role in cancer metastasis

2010-09-28
Researchers have shown that LIM kinase (LIMK), an important regulator of actin cytoskeleton dynamics, plays a key role in cancer metastasis. The study appears online on September 27 in The Journal of Cell Biology www.jcb.org. Cancer metastasis is a multi-stage process that starts with the invasion of tumor cells into their surrounding tissue. The ability of metastatic cells to invade requires reorganization of the actin-myosin cytoskeleton, which is controlled by a sophisticated network of signals sent between a number of cellular components. LIMK has been shown previously ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Brain stimulation can boost math learning in people with weaker neural connections

Inhibiting enzyme could halt cell death in Parkinson’s disease, study finds

Neurotechnology reverses biological disadvantage in maths learning

UNDER EMBARGO: Neurotechnology reverses biological disadvantage in maths learning

Scientists target ‘molecular machine’ in the war against antimicrobial resistance

Extending classical CNOP method for deep-learning atmospheric and oceanic forecasting

Aston University research: Parents should encourage structure and independence around food to support children’s healthy eating

Thunderstorms are a major driver of tree death in tropical forests

Danforth Plant Science Center adds two new faculty members

Robotic eyes mimic human vision for superfast response to extreme lighting

Racial inequities and access to COVID-19 treatment

Residential segregation and lung cancer risk in African American adults

Scientists wipe out aggressive brain cancer tumors by targeting cellular ‘motors’

Capturability distinction analysis of continuous and pulsed guidance laws

CHEST expands Bridging Specialties Initiative to include NTM disease and bronchiectasis on World Bronchiectasis Day

Exposure to air pollution may cause heart damage

SwRI, UTSA selected by NASA to test electrolyzer technology aboard parabolic flight

Prebiotics might be a factor in preventing or treating issues caused by low brain GABA

Youngest in class at higher risk of mental health problems

American Heart Association announces new volunteer leaders for 2025-26

Gut microbiota analysis can help catch gestational diabetes

FAU’s Paulina DeVito awarded prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

Champions for change – Paid time off initiative just made clinical trials participation easier

Fentanyl detection through packaging

Prof. Eran Meshorer elected to EMBO for pioneering work in epigenetics

New 3D glacier visualizations provide insights into a hotter Earth

Creativity across disciplines

Consequences of low Antarctic sea ice

Hear here: How loudness and acoustic cues help us judge where a speaker is facing

A unique method of rare-earth recycling can strengthen the raw material independence of Europe and America

[Press-News.org] Single electron reader opens path for quantum computing
Researchers develop key building block needed to make a quantum computer using silicon