Quantum Computers Get a Speed Boost from a New Device made by Bristol University Researchers

(Epigram.org) Researchers from Bristol University and Université Côte d‘Azur have created a new device that could improve the speed of quantum computers by ten times.
The new device is a miniaturised light detector made from two silicon chips and measures the properties of ‘squeezed’ light at record speeds, significantly faster than the previous state of the art.
Next-generation technologies like quantum computers could use light as the carrier of information and have the potential for computing power that far exceeds regular computers.
Squeezed light – light that has been manipulated using its quantum properties – can be used to carry information in quantum computers but requires detectors that are very sensitive to the weak features of the light.
Co-lead author of the study, Joel Tasker from the QET Labs, added that squeezed light ‘has already been used by the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave observatories to improve their sensitivity, helping to detect exotic astronomical events such as black hole mergers.
‘So, improving the ways we can measure it can have a big impact.’
Professor Jonathan Matthews, director of the project from the QET Labs, said that ‘much of the focus has been on the quantum part, but we’ve now begun integrating the interface between quantum photonics and electrical readout.’