A Fresh Step Towards Quantum Computing

The researcher Jose Ignacio Pascual of nanoGUNE, together with researchers of the Free University of Berlin, has developed a method to manipulate magnetism in atoms. This research makes it possible to drive forward the exploration of new methods of information storage and computation on an atomic scale. The work has been published recently in the journal Nature Physics.

Advances in technology for computation and information storage always require to make the systems smaller and faster. The limits of miniaturization are those set by nature: Materials are composed by specific units, the atoms, that cannot be further divided. The question arising is: Can we still codify information at the atomic scale? And the answer is yes, we can! but one needs to manipulate a property of the atoms, individually, and keep them in that state there for sufficiently long time to be able to read it.