OSU team proposes new approach to quantum computing
Greg Lafyatis, an associate professor of physics at (The) Ohio State (University), and his team recently published in Physical Review A on a new approach to quantum computing. According to Science News Daily, they:
designed a chip with a top surface of laser light that functions as an array of tiny traps, each of which could potentially hold a single atom. The design could enable quantum data to be read the same way CDs are read today.
Other research teams have created similar arrays, called optical lattices, but those designs present problems that could make them hard to use in practice. Other lattices lock atoms into a multi-layered cube floating in free space. But manipulating atoms in the center of the cube would be difficult. The Ohio State lattice has a more practical design, with a single layer of atoms grounded just above a glass chip. Each atom could be manipulated directly with a single laser beam.
(Hat tip to Slashdot.)
