A breakthrough by University of Queensland and US researchers has brought the world a "huge step" closer to the next generation in computation - quantum computers.
With scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA, Professor Gerard Milburn from the University's Centre for Quantum Computer Technology is involved in a project to develop a form of quantum computation using light.
Quantum computers are the way of the future, Professor Milburn says - the solution to the "brick wall" confronting scientists in their drive towards ever-smaller chips.
"Current technology is going to run into fundamental physical barriers (size and cost) around the year 2010. That will mean the end of the growth of this industry and the end of a lot of companies and national economies unless we can figure out a way forward.
"Fortunately we know the way forward: to build computers at the level of single atoms and single electrons we need to use quantum physics rather than ordinary everyday physics and electronics," he said.
By exploiting properties of quantum information, quantum computers make many attempts to solve hard problems at the same time, allowing calculations in a matter of seconds which now take weeks to achieve.
The latest breakthrough - linear optics quantum computation - pushes Australia further ahead in the world-wide race to make quantum computation a reality.
"The computational power it will unleash is truly stunning. By the middle of the century quantum computing will dominate information technologies, so those countries and those companies that can position themselves now, will be winners. Quantum computing is the most exciting of the range of quantum technologies and UQ is right there with the very best at the moment," he said.
The UQ group has a "finger in the pie" of several quantum computer technologies including solid state quantum computing, ion-trapping quantum computers and nuclear magnetic resonance computing.
UQ physicists this year will conduct groundbreaking experiments in quantum tunnelling with US-based 1997 Nobel Laureate in Physics William Phillips and have been involved in a major breakthrough in developing a solid state quantum computer in a joint effort with the University of New South Wales and the University of Melbourne through the Centre for Quantum Computing Technology.
The breakthrough in linear optics quantum computation came when Professor Milburn met with Los Alamos scientists Dr Manny Knill and Dr Raymond Laflamme, who were exploring linear optics for quantum computing using "lenses, semi-silvered mirrors, optical fibres - really simple things that are out there everywhere, if only we had single photon sources," Professor Milburn said.
"I told them I knew exactly how to build a single photon source. We worked out that if we had single photon sources we could produce little individual particles of light at will, just like little billiard balls. If we can detect them without losing them, then we can do quantum computation."
Professor Milburn said linear optics quantum computation, which had previously been regarded as "an impossibility" by researchers, offered a "whole new research direction to implementing quantum computers".
"Optics had been written off as hopeless - but now it's very viable. We think linear optics quantum computers will work faster and better than other models," he said.
For more information contact Professor Gerard Milburn (telephone 3365 6931 or email milburn@physics.uq.edu.au) or Helen Lewis at UQ Communications (telephone 3365 2619).
Photo ftp site: http://photos.cc.uq.edu.au/PNF:byName:/ScienceWriters/
For further information contact communications@mailbox.uq.edu.au
