Quantum machine
A quantum machine is a human-made device whose collective motion follows the laws of
History
The first quantum machine was created on August 4, 2009, by Aaron D. O'Connell while pursuing his Ph.D. under the direction of Andrew N. Cleland and John M. Martinis at the University of California, Santa Barbara. O'Connell and his colleagues coupled together a mechanical resonator, similar to a tiny springboard, and a qubit, a device that can be in a superposition of two quantum states at the same time. They were able to make the resonator vibrate a small amount and a large amount simultaneously—an effect which would be impossible in classical physics. The mechanical resonator was just large enough to see with the naked eye—about as long as the width of a human hair.[4] The groundbreaking work was subsequently published in the journal Nature in March 2010.[5] The journal Science declared the creation of the first quantum machine to be the "Breakthrough of the Year" of 2010.[6]
Cooling to the ground state
In order to demonstrate the quantum mechanical behavior, the team first needed to cool the mechanical resonator until it was in its quantum ground state, the state with the lowest possible energy.
A temperature was required, where is the
Previous teams of researchers had struggled with this stage, as a 1
Controlling the quantum state
The film bulk acoustic resonator was made of
In quantum mechanics, vibrations are made up of elementary vibrations called
Notes
^ a: The ground state energy of an oscillator is proportional to its frequency: see quantum harmonic oscillator.
References
- S2CID 206795705.
- S2CID 250911999..
- S2CID 14759237.
- ^ Boyle, Alan. "The year in science: a quantum leap". MSNBC. Archived from the original on 2010-12-19. Retrieved 2010-12-23.
- ^ S2CID 4412475.
- PMID 21163978.
- ^ Steven Girvin, http://www.condmatjournalclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/jccm_april2010_013.pdf Archived 2016-05-12 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Markus Aspelmeyer, "Quantum mechanics: the surf is up", Nature 464, 685–686 (1 April 2010)
- ^ Brandon Bryn, "Science: The breakthroughs of 2010 and insights of the decade", American Association for the Advancement of Science, December 16, 2010
- ^ Richard Webb, "First quantum effects seen in visible object", New Scientist, March 17, 2010
External links
- Cho, Adrian (2010-12-17). "Breakthrough of the Year: The First Quantum Machine". PMID 21163978.
- Brumfiel, Geoff (2010-03-17). "Scientists supersize quantum mechanics". Nature. .
- Aaron D. O'Connell, December 2010, "A Macroscopic Mechanical Resonator Operated in the Quantum Limit" (Ph.D. thesis)