Quantum information processing with electron spins/ informatique quantique avec le spin des électrons

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The rapidity at which a computer processes information is due to the facility to manipulate electric charges. The elemental carrier of the electric charge, the electron, also performs an action that could very well revolutionize the information technologies. Because of an intrinsic angular momentum, it is as if the electron turns, or spins, on itself. This property, known since the beginning of quantum mechanics, has been harnessed only recently. By measuring the rotation around a given axis, an observer will always obtain one of the two following results: either the electron spins at a certain speed clockwise, or the electron spins at the same speed anti-clockwise. These two states can be used to encode one bit of information at a very small physical scale: the size of the electron itself. Furthermore, using magnetic fields, it is possible to excite the electron to a state where it turns in both directions simultaneously, effectively implementing a quantum logical operation.