"Reading spin a decidedly non-trivial task"
Hence, of course, the need for Reg hacks and their clarificatory capabilities!
The University of New South Wales' School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications has created what it says is the world's first working qubit based on a single atom. Detailed in a new Nature paper, A single-atom electron spin qubit in silicon, the qubit relies on the ability to impart “spin” to an electron bound to a …
Who knew?
This one atom technology looks to be about as far as conventional storage and processing can go.
What a superb achievement. However I will note 2 things.
1) No mention of temperature. Quite important for anyone not living on a moon of Pluto and having ready access to 4K (or in fact 20mK in the case of the last quantum logic technology the Reg covered)
2) "Isotropically enriched" Silicon (one of the paths they recommend for future devices) is likely to be *very* much more expensive than the regular kind.
Thumbs up for having something ready at the end of road for device shrinkage.
"if they don't specifically brag about the high temperature: i.e. "room temperature" or "77K" or "4.2K", you can bet that it's done in millikelvin temperatures."
Pity.
20c would be great and 77k is *sort* of useable (Liquid Nitrogen being one of the cheapest bulk cryogens) if a data centre had a *really* desperate need for this kind of stuff.
Below that this is staying firmly in a research lab for the foreseeable future.