A silicon chip levitates individual atoms used in quantum
information processing. Photo: Curt Suplee and Emily Edwards,
Joint Quantum Institute and University of Maryland. Credit:
Science. These advances could enable the creation of immensely
powerful computers as well as other applications, such as highly
sensitive detectors capable of probing biological systems. “We
are really excited about the possibilities of new semiconductor
materials and new experimental systems that have become
available in the last decade,” said Jason Petta, one of the
authors of the report and an associate professor of physics at
Princeton University. Petta co-authored the article with David
Awschalom of the University of Chicago, Lee Basset of the
University of California-Santa Barbara, Andrew Dzurak of the
University of New South Wales and Evelyn Hu of Harvard
University. Two significant breakthroughs are enabling this
forward progress, Petta said in an interview. The first is the
ability to control quantum units of information, k