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ScienceDaily (Nov. 9, 2009) — Researchers at the Kavli Institute for Nanosciences at Delft University of Technology, have succeeded in getting hold of the environment of a quantum particle. This allows them to exercise greater control over a single electron, and brings the team of researchers, led by Vidi winner and FOM workgroup leader Lieven Vandersypen, a step closer still to the super-fast quantum computer.

Their results were published in Nature Physics on 16 August.

One of the unique properties of quantum particles is that they can be in different states at the same time. An atom or electron is then in what is termed a ‘superposition’ of two conditions. For instance, this means that the ‘spin’ of an electron can be pointing in two different directions at once. A particle like this can therefore be 0 and 1 at the same time, and not just 0 or 1 as in an ordinary computer connection. This permits super-fast calculations. Until now, however, it has not proved possible to keep a particle in one specific state for any real length of time, because the environment — which also consists of quantum particles — is constantly disrupting the state. Researchers have been unable to get to grips with this until now.

Stabilising the pull and push

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