They store data on magnetic "spins" of atomic nuclei -- then retrieve it
A breakthrough from University of Utah physicists involving the storage of data on tiny magnetic “spins” inside atomic nuclei could be a key advance in the march toward quantum computers.
The University of Utah has a good writeup of the study, which appears in the journal Science.
In short, the researchers not only stored the data for 112 seconds, but they also retrieved it — something that had not been done before.
“The length of spin memory we observed is more than adequate to create memories for computers,” says Christoph Boehme, an associate professor of physics and author of the study. “It’s a completely new way of storing and reading information.”
However, plenty of work remains before such technology will make its way into computers like those we use today or superfast computers of the future based on quantum mechanics. The experiment took place at hundreds of degrees Fahrenheit below zero and surrounded by powerful magnetic fields that are hundreds of thousands of times stronger than the Earth’s natural fields.
This has been a year of many breakthroughs on the quantum computing front. Cambridge scientists developed a way to generate the photons needed by quantum computers using LEDs and a Bristol University team came up with a way for quantum computers to do calculations via photons zipping around inside a silicon chip.
