Sound-based quantum computers could be built using chip-sized device

A crucial building block for quantum computers based on sound has been shown to work for the first time. One popular way of building quantum computers is to encode information into quantum states of particles of light, then send them through a maze of mirrors and lenses to manipulate that information. Andrew Cleland at the University of Chicago and his colleagues set out to do the same with particles of sound. Sound is created when an object or a substance, like air, vibrates. We hear it as a continuous noise, but it is actually a collection of tiny chunks of vibration, or particles of sound, called phonons.