Chance discovery hints at quantum leap

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/chance-discovery-brings-quantum-computing-using-standard-microchips-step-closer?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_campaign=e09b649635-briefing-dy-20200317&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-e09b649635-44992633

A study to prod an antimony nucleus (buried in the middle of this device) with magnetic fields became one with electric fields when a key wire melted a gap in it. (S. Asaad et al./Nature)

Chance discovery hints at quantum leap

Researchers have discovered “by complete accident” a way to control the nucleus of a single atom using only electric fields. Theorists predicted in 1958 that an oscillating electric field could flip a nucleus, but it had never been observed. The finding hints that it might be possible to use standard silicon microchips as the quantum bits, or qubits, in a quantum computer without messing around with difficult-to-constrain magnetic fields.

Science | 6 min readReference: Nature paper