Atom distribution of an ultracold quantum gas held in a two-dimensional crystal of light (Image: Stefan Kuhr & Immanuel Bloch, Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics)
FAST quantum computers made of atoms trapped by beams of light could be a step closer, thanks to the first images of the individual atoms in such a grid.
Quantum computers get their speed from the fact that their components can occupy a range of states rather than just two as in a binary computer. Special algorithms can exploit these quantum states to solve problems that would defeat a conventional computer.
One candidate for such…
