X marks the spot: Ions coldly go through NIST trap junction
Wednesday, April 8, 2009 - 13:07
in Physics & Chemistry
(PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have demonstrated a new ion trap that enables ions to go through an intersection while keeping their cool. Ten million times cooler than in prior similar trips, in fact. The demonstration, described in a forthcoming paper in Physical Review Letters,* is a step toward scaling up trap technology to build a large-scale quantum computer using ions (electrically charged atoms), a potentially powerful machine that could perform certain calculations -such as breaking today`s best data encryption codes -much faster than today`s computers.