Sound waves do double duty, carrying and protecting quantum information
Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have demonstrated a promising new way to protect fragile quantum information using nothing but mechanical vibrations—essentially extremely small sound waves. The breakthrough, which comes from the lab of Marko Lončar, Tiantsai Lin Professor of Electrical Engineering, paves a path toward compact,…
Researchers at Harvard University have developed a novel method to safeguard quantum data using mechanical vibrations, or sound waves. This innovation, led by the lab of Marko Lončar and involving postdoctoral researchers Eliza Cornell and Zhujing Xu, could lead to smaller, more integrated quantum networks on chips. The study, published in Nature Physics, demonstrates how phonons, or sound particles, can serve dual roles in quantum networks: transmitting information and protecting it.
Traditional quantum networks typically use light to carry information, but phonons offer the advantage of shorter wavelengths at a given frequency, allowing for more compact devices. However, phonons present their own set of challenges, particularly in maintaining quantum memory coherence. The Harvard team addressed this issue by employing continuous mechanical driving fields from phonons, effectively creating "dressed" qubits that are less susceptible to environmental noise.
This approach not only extends the coherence time of quantum spins but also enables phonons to perform their dual roles in quantum communication and protection.
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