Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have for the first time linked the quantum properties of two separated ions by manipulating them with microwaves. The NIST group is the first to position microwaves sources close enough to the ions, just 30 micrometers away, and create the conditions enabling entanglement, a quantum phenomenon expected to be crucial for transporting information and correcting errors in quantum computers. Compared to complex, expensive laser sources, microwave components could be expanded and upgraded more easily to build practical systems of thousands of ions for quantum computing and simulations.Learn more from NIST.
Physicists ‘Entangle’ Two Atoms Using Microwaves
