Purdue Researchers Build a Transistor-Like Gate for Quantum Qudits

(Phys.org) Purdue University researchers are among the first to build a gate—what could be a quantum version of a transistor, used in today’s computers for processing information—with qudits. Whereas qubits can exist only in superpositions of 0 and 1 states, qudits exist in multiple states, such as 0 and 1 and 2. More states mean that more data can be encoded and processed.
The gate would not only be inherently more efficient than qubit gates, but also more stable because the researchers packed the qudits into photons, particles of light that aren’t easily disturbed by their environment.
“This gate allows us to manipulate information in a predictable and deterministic way, which means that it could perform the operations necessary for certain quantum information processing tasks,” said Andrew Weiner, Purdue’s Scifres Family Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, whose lab specializes in ultrafast optics.