Quantum computing building blocks

Diamond nanophotonics technology is a major contender

for future optical computers. This work provides a wholly suitable pathway for the large-scale production of  logic gates for quantum computers that that approach the power of the human mind.
Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology created a wholly suitable pathway for the large-scale production of quantum logic gates. These gates are a critical component for  architectures. At the Center for Functional Nanomaterials, the researchers fabricated the silicon-based stencils. They used the stencils to pattern the NV centers. The stencils possessed features as small as 2 nanometers—nearly 10 times smaller than any previous demonstration. These devices are compatible with densities required for quantum computers.
Within , nitrogen vacancies have electron spin states that could be useful for future quantum computers. The NV electron spin triplet levels can be readily manipulated to create long-lasting states (exceeding milliseconds) at room temperature and even longer states (approaching one second) at the temperature of liquid nitrogen. To extend this approach to create more qubits, researchers devised a fabrication technique that produced well-spaced ensembles of several NVs. The spacing is required to allow the states to couple so they last longer. Their technique is based on masks produced from 270-nanometer-thick, silicon-based stencils, enabling 1-nanometer defects to be packed onto the surface.


Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-07-quantum-blocks.html#jCp