Breakthrough could mean quantum computing in five years

A team of researchers from the University of Bristol has announced the development of a chip which it says brings quantum computing closer to reality.

The UK Centre for Quantum Photonics lead the team of international researchers that have built a chip that utilitises light rather than electricity. The centre’s director Professor Jeremy O’Brien told the British Science Festival that it had previously been assumed that quantum computing would take at least 25 years to realise.

“However, we can say with real confidence that, using our new technique, a quantum computer could, within five years, be performing calculations that are outside the capabilities of conventional computers,” said O’Brien.

The team with members from Tohuku University, Twente University, Weizmann Institute and Bristol University jointly published details in the Science journal, describing a breakthrough in the production of quantum computing devices at ambient pressure and temperature.

The breakthrough involves the development of a two-photon process called a "quantum walk" which the team said allows performing of calculations that are "exponentially more complex than before."

“This is very much the beginning of a new field in quantum information science and will pave the way to quantum computers that will help us understand the most complex scientific problems."