Quantum computing in molecular magnets

Shor and Grover demonstrated that a quantum computer can outperform any classical computer in factoring numbers and in searching a database by exploiting the parallelism of quantum mechanics. Whereas Shor's algorithm requires both superposition and entanglement of a many-particle system, the su...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 2001-04, Vol.410 (6830), p.789-793
Main Authors: Loss, Daniel, Leuenberger, Michael N
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algorithms
Classical and quantum physics: mechanics and fields
Computers
Construction
Data storage
Dynamical systems
Dynamics
Exact sciences and technology
Humanities and Social Sciences
letter
Magnetism
Magnets
Molecules
multidisciplinary
Physics
Quantum computation
Quantum information
Quantum theory
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Searching
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Summary:Shor and Grover demonstrated that a quantum computer can outperform any classical computer in factoring numbers and in searching a database by exploiting the parallelism of quantum mechanics. Whereas Shor's algorithm requires both superposition and entanglement of a many-particle system, the superposition of single-particle quantum states is sufficient for Grover's algorithm. Recently, the latter has been successfully implemented using Rydberg atoms. Here we propose an implementation of Grover's algorithm that uses molecular magnets, which are solid-state systems with a large spin; their spin eigenstates make them natural candidates for single-particle systems. We show theoretically that molecular magnets can be used to build dense and efficient memory devices based on the Grover algorithm. In particular, one single crystal can serve as a storage unit of a dynamic random access memory device. Fast electron spin resonance pulses can be used to decode and read out stored numbers of up to 105, with access times as short as 10-10 seconds. We show that our proposal should be feasible using the molecular magnets Fe8 and Mn12.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/35071024