NER: Superconductor-nanotube Entangler

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The objective of this research is to achieve and measure the quantum entanglement of electrons which are far away from each other. The approach is to take a Cooper pair (two naturally entangled electrons) from a superconducting nanowire, and separate them spatially while keeping the entanglement intact. This can be achieved by contacting the superconductor with two electrical leads that exhibit Luttinger liquid properties, which are characteristic for one-dimensional systems. Using carbon nanotubes, which are naturally one-dimensional, will circumvent the difficulty of fabricating one-dimensional leads. The two electrons that make up the Cooper pair can then be forced to tunnel into two different leads, and transported some distance away. This novel device has been shown to be theoretically sound, but it has not been realized experimentally.If successful, this research would result in the first demonstration of entanglement at a distance for electrons. This has already been achieved with photons, but not with any massive particles. Using electrons in a solid-state device would immensely simplify many technical requirements for building functional, controllable and scalable devices for ultrafast transfer of quantum information. Such devices would ultimately be able to perform computational and cryptographic tasks that are currently impossible. As the future of quantum communication crucially relies on entanglement, this research would provide an extremely important proof of principle and it would represent a giant step towards developing a viable solid-state technology.