NIST physicists have successfully entangled two separated ions using microwaves for the first time, a breakthrough that could lead to more compact and affordable quantum computers. The team positioned microwave sources just 30 micrometers away from the ions and integrated the microwave wiring directly on a chip-sized ion trap. While low-power ultraviolet lasers are still needed for cooling and observation, the use of microwaves could eventually replace the complex, expensive laser systems currently used in quantum computing.
The potential impact of this technology is significant, as quantum computers could solve certain problems that are currently intractable even with supercomputers. Ions are a leading candidate for quantum bits (qubits) and are at a more advanced stage experimentally compared to other promising candidates like superconducting circuits. The NIST team achieved entanglement 76% of the time, well above the minimum threshold of 50%, but still need to improve microwave operations to enable practical quantum computations or simulations.
Keywords: entanglement, qubits, ions, microwave, quantum properties
