Quantum Computing

Three teams of scientists have achieved a major milestone in quantum computing. All three groups demonstrated better than 99 percent accuracy in silicon-based quantum devices, paving the way for practical, scalable, error-free quantum computers.

An exotic state of matter originally hypothesized almost 50 years ago has been observed for the first time. Created by Harvard researchers, this material called quantum spin liquid could eventually help improve quantum computers.

Time crystals sound like something a video game character would be trying to collect, but this bizarre phase of matter is very real – and now one of them has been created in Google’s quantum processor, Sycamore.

Quantum computers are so far held back by their complexity. Engineers at Stanford have now demonstrated a new relatively simple design for a quantum computer where a single atom is entangled with a series of photons to process and store information.

IBM has unveiled the Eagle, the world’s most powerful quantum processor. Boasting 127 quantum bits (qubits), the Eagle is a major step towards commercial quantum computers outperforming traditional machines.

An Australian/German company is developing powerful quantum accelerators the size of graphics cards. They work at room temperature, undercutting and outperforming today's huge, cryo-cooled quantum supercomputers, promising industry-wide disruption.

For now, quantum computers are mostly limited to labs and big experimental setups. But Japanese researchers have now made a step towards more accessible quantum computing devices, finding a way to “twist” light at room temperature.

Quantum computers could one day outperform traditional machines, but hurdles remain. Now physicists have successfully entangled three silicon quantum dots for the first time, in a breakthrough that could help make quantum computers more practical.

As revolutionary as they could be, quantum computers still have a few issues, such as controlling more than a few dozen qubits. Now researchers have found a way to control potentially millions of qubits at once, by adding a crystal prism to the chip.

A quantum internet could one day allow quantum computers to team up and tackle some gigantic problems. Researchers at Toshiba are a step closer, demonstrating quantum communications sent over a record-breaking 600 km (373 miles) of optic fiber.

Graphene just keeps getting weirder. Engineers at ETH Zurich have now managed to tweak the overachieving material so that some parts of a flake can be an electrical insulator while other areas act as a superconductor, just nanometers apart.

Researchers in China have demonstrated a quantum communication network where entangled photons are beamed between drones and ground stations, successfully maintaining their quantum link over a distance of 1 km.