Quantum computing has been a Holy Grail for researchers ever since Nobel Prize physicist Richard Feynman in 1981 challenged the scientific community to build computers based on quantum mechanics. For decades, the pursuit remained firmly in the theoretical realm. But now IBM scientists believe they’re on the cusp of building systems that will take computing to a whole new level.

On Tues, Feb 28, the IBM team will present major advances in quantum computing device performance at the annual American Physical Society meeting. Using a variety of techniques in the IBM labs, scientists have established three new records for retaining the integrity of quantum mechanical properties in quantum bits, or qubits, and reducing errors in elementary computations.These breakthrough results are very close to the minimum requirements for a full-scale quantum computing system as determined by the world-wide research community.

The special properties of qubits will allow quantum computers to work on millions of computations at once, while desktop PCs can typically handle minimal  simultaneous computations. For example, a single 250-qubit state contains more bits of information than there are atoms in the universe.

These properties will have wide-spread implications foremost for the field of data encryption and other possible applications such as searching databases of unstructured information, performing a range of optimization tasks and solving previously unsolvable mathematical problems

Furthermore, IBM has chosen to employ superconducting qubits which use established microfabrication techniques developed for silicon technology, providing the potential to one day scale up to and manufacture thousands or millions of qubits.

IBM Quantum Computing Video
The IBM quantum computing team discusses what lies ahead for quantum computing and how superconducting quantum bits may be the fastest approach.

Download a full-size version of this photo and others here.

A picture of IBM’s “3D” superconducting qubit device where a qubit (about 1mm in length) is suspended in the center of the cavity on a small Sapphire chip. The cavity is formed by closing the two halves, and measurements are done by passing microwave signals to the connectors. Despite the apparent large feature size (the cavity is about 1.5 inches wide) for this single qubit demonstration, the team believes it is possible to scale such a system to hundreds or thousands of qubits.

Download a full-size version of this photo and others here.

A picture of the Silicon chip housing a total of three qubits. The chip is back-mounted on a PC board and connects to I/O coaxial lines via wire bonds (scale: 8mm x 4mm). A larger assembly of such qubits and resonators are envisioned to be used for a scalable architecture.

IBM Research paper - Superconducting qubit 0.1ms

IBM Research Paper - Superconducting qubit in waveguide cavity with coherence time approaching 0.1ms (Disclaimer: This is a draft and subject to some changes in the final version.)

IBM Research paper - Complete universal quantum gate set

IBM Research Paper - Complete universal quantum gate set approaching fault-tolerant thresholds with superconducting qubits (Disclaimer: This is a draft and subject to some changes in the final version.)

Matthias Steffen

Manager, Experimental Quantum Computing

Matthias Steffen joined IBM T.J. Watson’s Research facility in Yorktown Heights in 2006 and since 2010 manages the quantum computing team. His research career has focused on experimental realizations of quantum bits applicable for quantum information processing, including liquid state NMR and superconducting qubits. He received his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 2003 and went on to do a postdoc at NIST in Boulder, Colorado, and University of California, Santa Barbara.

Mark Ketchen

Manager, Physics of Information

Mark B. Ketchen is Manager of the Physics of Information Group at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. He has a BS in physics from MIT and a PhD in physics from UC Berkeley.  He served for four years as an officer in the US Navy and for the last 34 years has held a variety of research positions at IBM.  He is currently Principal Investigator of an IBM led multi-institutional effort to develop coupled superconducting quantum device systems for future quantum computing applications.  He is a Fellow of the IEEE, a Fellow of the American Physical Society and a Member of the IBM Academy of Technology.

Christine Vu

IBM Media Relations

(914-945-2755)

vuch@us.ibm.com

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