Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. Space Industry and Business News .




CHIP TECH
UCSB researchers make headway in quantum information transfer via nanomechanical coupling
by Staff Writers
Santa Barbara CA (SPX) Sep 25, 2013


This is a scanning electron micrograph of the device showing the mechanically suspended optomechanical crystal (blue) with electrodes (yellow) and the photonic circuit (red). Credit: Joerg Bochmann and Amit Vainsencher, UCSB.

Fiber optics has made communication faster than ever, but the next step involves a quantum leap -- literally. In order to improve the security of the transfer of information, scientists are working on how to translate electrical quantum states to optical quantum states in a way that would enable ultrafast, quantum-encrypted communications.

A UC Santa Barbara research team has demonstrated the first and arguably most challenging step in the process. The paper, published in Nature Physics, describes a nanomechanical transducer that provides strong and coherent coupling between microwave signals and optical photons.

In other words, the transducer is an effective conduit for translating electrical signals (microwaves) into light (photons).

Today's high-speed Internet converts electrical signals to light and sends it through optical fibers, but accomplishing this with quantum information is one of the great challenges in quantum physics.

If realized, this would enable secure communication and even quantum teleportation, a process by which quantum information can be transmitted from one location to another.

"There's this big effort going on in science now to construct computers and networks that work on the principles of quantum physics," says lead author Jorg Bochmann, a postdoctoral scholar in UCSB's Department of Physics.

"And we have found that there actually is a way to translate electrical quantum states to optical quantum states."

The new paper outlines the concept and presents a prototype device, which uses an optomechanical crystal implemented in a piezoelectric material in a way that is compatible with superconducting qubits, quantum analogs of classical bits.

Operating the device at the single phonon limit, the scientists were able generate coherent interactions between electrical signals, very high frequency mechanical vibrations, and optical signals.

Although the first prototype of the transducer has not been operated in the quantum realm, that is, in fact, the next step for the research effort. "In this paper, we're characterizing the system using classical electrical and optical signals and find that the essential parameters look very promising," says Bochmann.

"In the next step, we would have to actually input quantum signals from the electrical side and then check whether the quantum properties are preserved in the light."

According to the authors, their prototype transducer is fully compatible with superconducting quantum circuits and is well suited for cryogenic operation. "The coupled dynamics of the system should be the same at low temperatures as in our room temperature measurements, albeit with a lower thermal background," said co-author Andrew Cleland, a professor of physics and associate director of the California Nanosystems Institute at UCSB.

"Genuine quantum features and non-classical mechanical states will emerge when we couple a superconducting qubit to the transducer.

"We believe that combining optomechanics with superconducting quantum devices will enable a new generation of on-chip quantum devices with unique capabilities, as well as opening an exciting pathway for realizing entangled networks of electronic and photonic quantum systems," Cleland said.

.


Related Links
University of California - Santa Barbara
Computer Chip Architecture, Technology and Manufacture
Nano Technology News From SpaceMart.com






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








CHIP TECH
Stanford scientists publish theory, formula to improve 'plastic' semiconductors
Stanford CA (SPX) Sep 25, 2013
Anyone who's stuffed a smart phone in their back pocket would appreciate the convenience of electronic devices that could bend. Flexible electronics could spawn new products: clothing wired to cool or heat, reading tablets that could fold like newspaper, and so on. Alas, electronic components such as chips, displays and wires are generally made from metals and inorganic semiconductors - m ... read more


CHIP TECH
NGC Completes Safety of Flight Testing on Common Infrared Countermeasure System

Green photon beams more agile than optical tweezers

Space oddity: the mystery of 2013 QW1

Domain walls as new information storage medium

CHIP TECH
Third Advanced EHF Satellite Will Enhance Resiliency of Military Communications

USAF Launches Third Advanced Extremely High Frequency Satellite

Atlas 5 Lofts 3rd AEHF Military Comms Satellites

Unified Military Intelligence Picture Helping to Dispel the Fog of War

CHIP TECH
Arianespace and Astrium sign deal to begin production of 18 new Ariane 5 vehicles

Problems with Proton booster fixed

Decontamination continues at Baikonur after Proton abortive launc

Russia launches three communication satellites

CHIP TECH
Astrium down selected for MOJ electronic tagging contract

Lockheed Martin GPS 3 Satellite Prototype Integrated With Raytheon OCX Ground Control Segment

China's navi-location industries to boom: white paper

OHN Christner Trucking Selects Orbcomm For Refrigerated Telematics Solution

CHIP TECH
Lockheed focused on South Korean jet re-tender

NGC and USAF Complete Warfighter Analysis Workshops

Japan, Belgium seek FMS deals

US to upgrade Japan's early warning radar aircraft: Pentagon

CHIP TECH
Promising new alloy for resistive switching memory

Counting on neodymium

UCSB researchers make headway in quantum information transfer via nanomechanical coupling

Stanford scientists publish theory, formula to improve 'plastic' semiconductors

CHIP TECH
UCLA scientists explain the formation of unusual ring of radiation in space

Ultra-fast Electrons Explain Third Radiation Ring Around Earth

Preparing to launch Swarm

ESA's GOCE mission to end this year

CHIP TECH
Pollution deadlier than road accidents in Sao Paulo

Chile ruling to keep Barrick mine closed to late 2014

Legacy Soil Pollution Higher lead levels may lie just below surface

PNG makes BHP liable for environmental damage from mine




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement