PARIS — Post-doc Henrik Ingerslev Jrgensen from the Nano-Science Center, located at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen, claimed he has come to understand the interaction between two electrons placed next to each other in a carbon nanotube. His results could help for the creation of a quantum mechanical bit, the cornerstone of a quantum computer.

Jrgensen, who is one of the researchers competing to be the first to make a quantum bit in a carbon nanotube, claimed he has moved one step closer to the quantum computer. He has been working in close collaboration with the Hitachi Cambridge Laboratory in England.

"We use carbon nanotubes due to their unique electronic and material properties and not least due to the absence of disturbing magnetism from the atom nuclei which is found in certain competing materials," commented Kasper Grove Rasmussen, co-author of the article.

Rasmussen added: "At present it is not possible to say which material will be the most suitable for the quantum computer, or who will be the first to realize a quantum bit in a carbon nanotube, but the researchers at the Nano-Science Center are a big step closer to the solution."

On Jrgensen's website, he noted that his PhD thesis, entitled "Experimental Quantum Transport in Carbon Nanotubes: Josephson Quantum Dot Junctions and Double Quantum Dots" was supported by the European Union Specific Targeted Research Project (EU-STREP) program called ULTRA-1D.