Quantum computing and photonics discovery potentially shrinks critical parts by 1,000 times

NTU researchers have made a discovery that could make quantum computing more compact, potentially shrinking essential components 1,000 times while also requiring less equipment. 

A class of quantum computers being developed now relies on light particles, or photons, created in pairs that are linked or “entangled”. One way to produce these photons is to shine a laser on millimetre-thick crystals and use optical equipment to ensure the photons become linked. A drawback to this approach is that it is too big to integrate into a computer chip. 

Now, NTU scientists led by Prof Gao Weibo have found a way to address this approach’s problem by producing linked pairs of photons using much thinner materials that are just micrometres thick, or about 80 times thinner than a strand of hair. And they did so without needing additional optical gear to maintain the link between the photon pairs, making the overall set-up simpler and potentially scaling down the size of devices for quantum applications.

Read more at the NTU Research Hub.