Crystals Doped with Rare-Earth Ions Drive Ultrafast Quantum Computing

Scientists at Estonia’s Institute of Physics at the University of Tartu are using rare earth ions as qubits in their development of a new variation of optical quantum computers. Qubits of microcrystals, synthesized on the basis of mixed optical fluoride crystal matrices doped with rare earth element ions such as erbium and praseodymium, enabled the researchers to perform ultrafast optical quantum computations. The successful demonstration is a cursory step to achieving what the researchers described as an “ultrafast working cycle” — an achievement that would allow scientists to overcome the very short coherence time of qubits, or the extent of their operational existence in a pure quantum state. The faster the...