The antimony atom was implanted in the chip by colleagues at the University of Melbourne, using facilities of the Heavy Ion Accelerators at the Australian National University.

Antimony is a heavy atom that can be implanted in a silicon chip, replacing one of the existing silicon atoms. It was chosen because its nucleus possesses eight distinct quantum states, plus an ...

Instead we used a much larger particle, the nucleus of an antimony atom. The spin of this particle can point in eight different directions, instead of just two.

Plus, it has an electron that itself has two quantum states, which doubles the total on offer in the antimony atom to 16 (each of the original eight, paired in turn with each of the electron’s two).

Instead we used a much larger particle, the nucleus of an antimony atom. The spin of this particle can point in eight different directions, instead of just two. We were able to place the atom in a ...

Antimony atom cat The cat state in the UNSW study is an atom of antimony, which is a heavy atom with a large nuclear spin. The high spin value implies that, instead of just pointing up and down (that ...

"We investigated antimony as an elemental model system for phase change materials. It has a similar structure to germanium telluride, but consists of only one type of atom," says Professor Schnohr.

The antimony cat is embedded inside a silicon quantum chip, similar to the ones we have in our computers and mobile phones, but adapted to give access to the quantum state of a single atom.

That atom, equipped with five electrons, carries one more than a silicon atom does. Because electrons pair up, the odd antimony electron remains free. That free electron is where the potential lies.

Antimony, though, has a large nuclear spin that can take any of the eight directions available to it. So, if ‘0’ is a dead cat and ‘1’ is an alive cat, a change in spin direction will not ...