Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: quantum physics

In a step that brings silicon-based quantum computers closer to reality, researchers at Princeton University have built a device in which a single electron can pass its quantum information to a particle of light. The particle of light, or photon, can then act as a messenger to carry the information to other electrons, creating connections that form the circuits of a quantum computer.

The research, published in the journal Science and conducted at Princeton and HRL Laboratories in Malibu, California, represents a more than five-year effort to build a robust capability for an electron to talk to a , said Jason Petta, a Princeton professor of physics.

“Just like in human interactions, to have good communication a number of things need to work out—it helps to speak the same language and so forth,” Petta said. “We are able to bring the energy of the electronic state into resonance with the light particle, so that the two can talk to each other.”

Read more

Bob Gourley

Our report on Naturally Better Security dove deep into ways quantum effects can be leveraged to enhance real world cybersecurity. It was our most popular post in November 2016 and the feedback we received was taken as a signal that we should produce more on what CTOs should know about the quantum world. With this post we are kicking off a series of five pieces that will dive into quantum effects. This first post tackles some foundational background that puts the science into a historical context. The second one will discuss the current revolution in quantum computing. The third focuses on security concerns. The forth dives into quantum key distribution. The fifth hits on the “so-what” of the current revolution in terms of security.

So first, foundational background on quantum mechanics.

Read more

Oh; there is a LOT more to they syndiamond story as it relates to some of the additional hardware and communications technologies that we’re developing and planning for the future.

What are the unique properties of diamond that make it a supermaterial?

Diamond has long been known to have exceptional properties, largely resulting from the symmetry of the cubic lattice made of light carbon atoms connected by extremely strong bonds. These exceptional properties include thermal conductivity five times higher than that of copper and the widest optical transparency of any material extending from the UV to the RF part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Additionally, diamond also has some interesting chemical properties as it is extremely inert, though it can become a conductor by adding boron. In this manner, one could leverage synthetic diamond for use in electrochemical incineration where existing electrode materials have only a limited lifetime.

What are the traditional applications for synthetic diamond in engineering and electronics?

Historically diamond has been exploited mainly for its great hardness in mechanical applications. For example in modern cars more than 150 components are made using a variety of diamond tools. However in the past two decades there have been an increasing number of applications which utilize some of diamonds’ other superlative properties. For example, synthetic diamond is utilized in semiconductor applications for its heat spreading abilities. This trend is being driven by the increasing number of transistors on a chip which increases the thermal load and therefore runs the risk of device failure. Using diamond in this application not only means more transistors can run on a chip but it also extends device lifetime as they can run cooler. Synthetic diamond is also being used as a radiation detector. Element Six diamond is currently being used in the CERN Large Hadron Collider as part of its monitoring system.

Read more

Researchers used nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots to convert carbon dioxide into liquid hydrocarbons like ethylene and ethanol for use as fuel.

The wonder material known as graphene may have a new trick up its sleeve: converting carbon dioxide into liquid fuels. A team of researchers at Rich University in Texas used nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots (NGQDs) as a catalyst in electrochemical reactions that create ethylene and ethanol, and the stability and efficiency of the material is close to common electrocatalysts such as copper.

In the fight to slow climate change, reducing the amount of carbon dioxide that enters the atmosphere is crucial, and plenty of research is looking into how we can capture carbon at the source, using clay, engineered bacteria, metal-organic frameworks, or materials like the “Memzyme” and sequester it into rock and concrete. Other studies are focusing on converting the captured carbon into liquid hydrocarbons, which can be used as fuel.

Read more

For the first time, MIT physicists have observed a highly ordered crystal of electrons in a semiconducting material and documented its melting, much like ice thawing into water. The observations confirm a fundamental phase transition in quantum mechanics that was theoretically proposed more than 80 years ago but not experimentally documented until now.

The team, led by MIT professor of physics Raymond Ashoori and his postdoc Joonho Jang, used a spectroscopy technique developed in Ashoori’s group. The method relies on electron “tunneling,” a quantum mechanical process that allows researchers to inject electrons at precise energies into a system of interest—in this case, a system of electrons trapped in two dimensions. The method uses hundreds of thousands of short electrical pulses to probe a sheet of electrons in a cooled to extremely low temperatures, just above absolute zero.

With their tunneling technique, the researchers shot electrons into the supercooled material to measure the energy states of electrons within the semiconducting sheet. Against a background blur, they detected a sharp spike in the data. After much analysis, they determined that the spike was the precise signal that would be given off from a highly ordered crystal of electrons vibrating in unison.

Read more

Nice.

Using their advanced atomic clock to mimic other desirable quantum systems, JILA physicists have caused atoms in a gas to behave as if they possess unusual magnetic properties long sought in harder-to-study solid materials. Representing a novel “off-label” use for atomic clocks, the research could lead to the creation of new materials for applications such as “spintronic” devices and quantum computers.

JILA’s record-setting atomic clock, in which strontium atoms are trapped in a laser grid known as an , turns out to be an excellent model for the magnetic behavior of crystalline solids at the atomic scale. Such models are valuable for studying the counterintuitive rules of quantum mechanics.

To create “synthetic” magnetic fields, the JILA team locked together two properties of the clock atoms to create a quantum phenomenon known as spin-orbit coupling. The long lifetime and precision control of the clock atoms enabled researchers to overcome a common problem in other gas-based spin-orbit coupling experiments, namely heating and loss of atoms due to spontaneous changes in atomic states, which interferes with the effects researchers are trying to achieve.

Read more

Doesn’t pay to fraud the government. The real question is why it took so long (4 years).

Defendant submitted false data and information instead of building and testing experimental components

OAKLAND – S. Darin Kinion, Ph.D., was sentenced today to 18 months’ imprisonment for submitting false data and reports to defraud the United States in connection with a quantum computing research program announced United States Attorney Brian J. Stretch, U.S. Department of Energy Special Agent in Charge of the Office of the Inspector General Scott Berenberg, and Inspector General of the Intelligence Community I. Charles McCullough III. The sentence follows a guilty plea entered June 14, 2016, in which Kinion acknowledged submitting false data and reports to the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (“IARPA”) of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in a scheme to defraud the government out of money intended to fund research.

According to his plea agreement, Kinion, 44, of Lafayette, Calif., admitted that between 2008 and 2012, he received millions of dollars of funding from IARPA to design, build, and test experimental components in the field of quantum computing at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (“LLNL”). Nevertheless, rather than build and test the experimental components, Kinion presented to the government false and fraudulent data and information in a scheme to defraud IARPA into thinking he had performed the work. In order to build and test the experimental components, Kinion would have had to set up and operate certain equipment. Kinion requested funds from IARPA to purchase the equipment, claimed he had used the equipment successfully to build and test experimental components, and submitted reports and information in support of these claims. Kinion, however, never setup nor operated the equipment.

Read more

Researchers have developed a new type of light-enhancing optical cavity that is only 200 nanometers tall and 100 nanometers across. Their new nanoscale system represents a step toward brighter single-photon sources, which could help propel quantum-based encryption and a truly secure and future-proofed network.

Quantum encryption techniques, which are seen as likely to be central to future data encryption methods, use individual as an extremely secure way to encode data. A limitation of these techniques has been the ability to emit photons at high rates. “One of the most important figures of merit for single-photon sources is brightness—or collected photons per second—because the brighter it is, the more data you can transmit securely with quantum encryption,” said Yousif Kelaita, Nanoscale and Quantum Photonics Lab, Stanford University, California.

In the journal Optical Materials Express, Kelaita and his colleagues show that their new nanocavity significantly increased the emission brightness of quantum dots—nanometer-scale semiconductor particles that can emit single photons.

Read more

Many more great things are coming.

NIST called on cryptography researchers to submit their quantum-proof encryption algorithms by November 30. NIST is the latest government agency to start taking the threat of quantum computers seriously.

Read more

Back in September 2015, Gooch & Housego reported on our work with cold atom technology on the FreezeRay project. Now, just over a year later, we’re happy to say that Gooch & Housego has successfully won funding for involvement in two further programs, CASPA and REVEAL, in a competition for the commercialization of quantum technologies. The contest is supported by Innovate UK and the UK National Quantum Technologies Programme.

CASPA (Cold Atom Space Payload) has the aim of developing a payload compatible with CubeSat and capable of producing cold atoms in space. As with all such projects, we are breaking new ground here and an effective demonstration of the prototype system – in this instance space will be the crucial first step towards commercializing instrumentation systems capable of recording minuscule changes in the earth’s gravitational strength. Such changes when mapped across the earth’s surface have the potential to be used in resource exploration or to geo-monitoring of polar ice mass, ocean currents and sea level changes.

CASPA will also evaluate the viability of using the technology in the provision of higher precision timing sources for next generation global positioning system (GPS) and also for deep space navigation. The program partners are e2v technologies Ltd, ClydeSpace, XCAM, Covesion, the University of Birmingham and the University of Southampton.

Read more