Researchers have been “splitting” phonons in pursuit of a new type of linear mechanical quantum computer
An artist’s impression of the Linear Mechanical Quantum Computing (LMQC) platform. The central transparent element is the phonon beam splitter. The blue and red balls represent individual phonons, which are the collective motions of quadrillion atoms. These mechanical motions can be visualized as surface acoustic waves entering the beam splitter from opposite directions. Two-phonon interference…
