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The alphabet of data processing could include more elements than the "0" and "1" in future. An international research team has achieved a new kind of bit with single electrons, called quantum bits, or qubits. With them, considerably more than two states can be defined

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at D-Wave Systems have carried out a calculation involving 84 qubits on an experimental quantum computer, giving some credence to the plausibility of true quantum computers being created that could vastly surpass the abilities of all those that currently rely on existing technology.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just jump from using computers based on circuits to machines based on quantum bits (qubits)? Things would run ever so much faster. Alas, the problem is, scientists have to first figure out how to make it all work, and thus far, little real progress has been made.

Physicists at the RUB, working in collaboration with researchers from Grenoble and Tokyo, have succeeded in taking a decisive step towards the development of more powerful computers. They were able to define two little quantum dots (QDs), occupied with electrons, in a semiconductor and to select a single electron from one of them using a sound wave, and then to transport it to the neighbouring QD. A single electron "surfs" thus from one quantum dot to the next like a fish on a wave.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Quantum physicists from the University of Innsbruck (Austria) have set another world record: They have achieved controlled entanglement of 14 quantum bits (qubits) and, thus, realized the largest quantum register that has ever been produced. With this experiment the scientists have not only come closer to the realization of a quantum computer but they also show surprising results for the quantum mechanical phenomenon of entanglement.