Physicists at QuSoft and the University of Amsterdam have proposed a new architecture for a scalable quantum computer. Making use of the collective motion of the constituent particles, they were able to construct new building blocks for quantum computing that pose fewer technical difficulties than current state-of-the art methods.
The research combines combines two important ingredients. One is a so-called trapped-ion platform, one of the most promising candidates for quantum computing that makes use of ions—atoms that have either a surplus or a shortage of electrons and as a result are electrically charged. The other is the use of a clever method to control the ions supplied by optical tweezers and oscillating electric fields.
The idea is made concrete by applying a uniform electric field to the whole crystal, in order to mediate interactions between two specific ions in that crystal. The two ions are selected by applying tweezer potentials on them. The homogeneity of the electric field assures that it will only allow the two ions to move together with all other ions in the crystal. As a result, the interaction strength between the two selected ions is fixed, regardless of how far apart the two ions are.
The results were recently published in Physical Review Letters.
