Caltech Scientists Film Photons With Electrons

al0ha writes "Techniques recently invented by researchers at the California Institute of Technology which allow the real-time, real-space visualization of fleeting changes in the structure of nanoscale matter have been used to image the evanescent electrical fields produced by the interaction of electrons and photons, and to track changes in atomic-scale structures."

Comments

This is what quantum computing needs.

[Anonymous Coward]

This is actually quite applicable to quantum computing. We are getting to the point where we can define the qubits, but have trouble measuring the photon emissions that indicate the result of the computation. This will allow us to finally measure what amounts to the result of the quantum calculation. It's been a long time in coming, but this will finally allow us to make some significant strides towards commercializing quantum computing.

Re:This is what quantum computing needs.

[Interoperable]

You may be more well-versed in the field than I am, but I don't see it. For a quantum computer you need to: 1) prepare a set of quantum states, 2) allow them to interact in a controllable manner, 3) read the result. The states must not interact with the environment throughout. Some q-bit candidates are: photons, trapped ions, trapped neutral atoms, ensembles of atoms, quantum dots, super-conducting circuits. Each has some advantages and some disadvantages but none can perform all of the steps easily while preserving the quantum state.

Some qubits can be easily written into others, some can't. The article does not suggest a protocol for reading the state of one qubit into another or even discuss prepared quantum states. If I've missed it, please enlighten me, but some experiments in quantum physics really are done without quantum computing as the goal.