MilestoneHardwareConfirmed
Cirac and Zoller propose a quantum computer built from trapped ions
May 15, 1995
Theorists Ignacio Cirac and Peter Zoller propose a practical design for a quantum computer: cold ions lined up in a trap, controlled with laser beams and linked through their shared motion, so that logic gates can act on any pair of ions.
Why it matters
It drew experimental physicists into quantum computing, and within months a NIST team used the scheme to demonstrate a quantum logic gate with a trapped ion.
Ignacio Cirac · Peter Zoller · Innsbruck
Related
Sources (4)
-
Physical Review Letters
Quantum Computations with Cold Trapped Ions
“A quantum computer can be implemented with cold ions confined in a linear trap and interacting with laser beams. Quantum gates involving any pair, triplet, or subset of ions can be realized by coupling the ions through the collective quantized motion.”
-
NIST (Taking Measure blog)
How NIST Helped Start an Industry: Our Role in Jump-Starting Quantum Information Science
“Inspired by Ekert’s talk, their May 1995 paper envisioned using individual ions as quantum bits for quantum computing in an experimental system similar to what the NIST atomic clock physicists had built.”
-
arXiv (Seth Lloyd)
The Universe as Quantum Computer
“In 1995, Ignacio Cirac and Peter Zoller showed how ion traps could be used to implement quantum computation”
-
arXiv (John Preskill)
Quantum computing 40 years later
“Meanwhile, Cirac and Zoller had proposed that tools in atomic physics and quantum optics can be exploited to perform quantum logical operations [19], amplifying interest in the experimental physics community”
Each quote above was checked automatically against the original page. Added Oct 15, 2026. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will review it.