Light may be the missing ingredient in making usable quantum silicon computer chips, according to an international study featuring a University of Queensland researcher.

The team has engineered a silicon chip that can guide single particles of light -- photons -- along optical tracks, encoding and processing quantum-bits of information known as 'qubits'.

Professor Timothy Ralph from UQ's Centre for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology said that the use of photons in this way could increase the number and types of tasks that computers can help us with.

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