Coupling Qubits by Waves on the Electron Sea

There is great interest in exploiting the unique behavior of quantum systems for computation, but building real devices has proved difficult. One approach is to use electron spin to represent the qubits (quantum bits) in a computational device. In their Perspective, [Glazman and Ashoori][1] discuss results reported in the same issue by [ Craig et al .][2] on using quantum dots as quantum logic elements. The dots act as artificial atoms, with the number of electrons on each subject to control. The electron spins in a pair of quantum dots interact with each other, and the Kondo effect enables detection of the state of the spin pair. This ability to control and detect the interaction between the spins may one day find use in quantum computation. [1]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/304/5670/524 [2]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/304/5670/565