Sound of an Atom
Scientists have figured out how to interact with an artificial
atom using sound. While other teams have connected tiny membranes or strings to atoms, this is the first time they've connected a sound wave to an atom.
The experiment may seem unusual, but the result could lead to the long-term goal of building quantum computers that can harness the power of sound to make electrical circuits and faster data processors.
The team started by first making an artificial atom. Next, they charged it with energy. Normally, atoms release energy in the form of light, called a photon. However, in this experiment, the atom was designed to both emit and absorb energy in the form of sound, called a phonon.
The emitted sound was, in theory, a stream of quantum particles, the weakest whisper physically possible. In fact, it was about the same frequency of radio waves of a mobile
phone or wireless network.
The experiments were done at Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology while Gustafsson was a post-doc there. The results are published online today in the journal
Science Express.
In this experiment, the artificial atom becomes a Superconducting circuit that can be used as a qubit, which is
the name for the building block of a quantum computer.
Since sound moves 100,000 times more slowly than light, scientists have more time to control sound particles, or phonons, while they travel. The
researchers cooled their experiments to near absolute zero, or 20 millikelvin, to make sure any heat energy would not disturb the atom.
Scientists have figured out how to interact with an artificial
atom using sound. While other teams have connected tiny membranes or strings to atoms, this is the first time they've connected a sound wave to an atom.
The experiment may seem unusual, but the result could lead to the long-term goal of building quantum computers that can harness the power of sound to make electrical circuits and faster data processors.
The team started by first making an artificial atom. Next, they charged it with energy. Normally, atoms release energy in the form of light, called a photon. However, in this experiment, the atom was designed to both emit and absorb energy in the form of sound, called a phonon.
The emitted sound was, in theory, a stream of quantum particles, the weakest whisper physically possible. In fact, it was about the same frequency of radio waves of a mobile
phone or wireless network.
The experiments were done at Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology while Gustafsson was a post-doc there. The results are published online today in the journal
Science Express.
In this experiment, the artificial atom becomes a Superconducting circuit that can be used as a qubit, which is
the name for the building block of a quantum computer.
Since sound moves 100,000 times more slowly than light, scientists have more time to control sound particles, or phonons, while they travel. The
researchers cooled their experiments to near absolute zero, or 20 millikelvin, to make sure any heat energy would not disturb the atom.
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