An Amplifier That’s Quantum Quiet.

[chrismb]

Specifically aimed at quantum computing, but looks interesting generally:

"today’s amplifiers boost ...signals at a cost, sometimes drowning them out with noise from the amplifiers themselves. “Our device adds, at least in principle, the minimum possible amount of noise dictated by the laws of quantum mechanics,” says Massel."

http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors ... ign=121511

[Doug Coulter]

I saw this on another science press-release (ugh) board I check regularly. Seems they've invented the parametric amplifier again. I couldn't find out from the non-info in either place whether they are using a different pump frequency or what the nonlinear element was, however. Looks like they have a way to go to get down to single photon work at this point, with a minus 20x SNR.