Published in ScienceNOW, 14 Dec 2011
Amplifying electrical signals while minimizing noise is crucial to a lot of modern technology. Now, scientists have created a device that amplifies microwaves with almost the minimum amount of noise allowed by quantum mechanics. The device could be used to process the sensitive outputs of quantum computers, which are expected to outperform conventional computers in years to come.
Noise is ever-present in electrical signals. Some of it arises simply because atoms have heat—they jostle around, knocking into one another. But even when there is no heat—that is, when temperatures have dropped close to absolute zero—noise remains. That’s because of a fundamental tenet of quantum mechanics, which says that space is always filled with fluctuating energy, or quantum jitters. […]
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