Silicon Valley may have to be renamed Quantum Valley. It turns out that it's possible to drum up the coherent quantum states needed to perform quantum calculations within an ordinary "doped" silicon semiconductor.
Substituting phosphorus for some silicon atoms preserves the crystal lattice inside the silicon wafer, but the phosphorus atoms each carry one more electron than their silicon neighbours. This means that at temperatures close to absolute zero the loose electron on each phosphorus atom behaves rather like the single electron in a hydrogen atom – if it is given an energy boost, it begins to orbit much further away from the nucleus, covering a larger spatial range.
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