The quantum era is here: calculations that would take the world’s most powerful supercomputer 47 years can now be solved in mere seconds on a quantum computer.
This dramatic acceleration in computing power is because quantum bits – or “qubits,” the fundamental units of a quantum computer – can process multiple outcomes at once, instead of one by one.
Qubits are not easy to create. While single atoms are ideal building blocks for qubits, the challenge is capturing and controlling them.
In 2001, physicist Georges-Olivier Reymond was the first to trap single atoms with optical tweezers through his Ph.D. research. Yet he could not see the potential of quantum computing at the time.
“I was doing this research because it was exciting and it was great physics, but honestly, quantum computing seemed a very, very far way off. Back then, it was still science fiction. Everything was classical. Nothing was quantum. But the single atom was the real seed for this new field of quantum physics,” he says.
It took nearly 20 years, and a career as an engineer, for Reymond to be convinced that quantum technology was finally ready to leave the lab.
Together with former colleagues from the Institut d’Optique graduate engineering school in France, Reymond founded Pasqal in March 2019 to focus on industrial quantum applications.
This dramatic acceleration in computing power is because quantum bits – or “qubits,” the fundamental units of a quantum computer – can process multiple outcomes at once, instead of one by one.
Qubits are not easy to create. While single atoms are ideal building blocks for qubits, the challenge is capturing and controlling them.
In 2001, physicist Georges-Olivier Reymond was the first to trap single atoms with optical tweezers through his Ph.D. research. Yet he could not see the potential of quantum computing at the time.
“I was doing this research because it was exciting and it was great physics, but honestly, quantum computing seemed a very, very far way off. Back then, it was still science fiction. Everything was classical. Nothing was quantum. But the single atom was the real seed for this new field of quantum physics,” he says.
It took nearly 20 years, and a career as an engineer, for Reymond to be convinced that quantum technology was finally ready to leave the lab.
Together with former colleagues from the Institut d’Optique graduate engineering school in France, Reymond founded Pasqal in March 2019 to focus on industrial quantum applications.
