"Silicon has dominated the computing industry for decades", stated Dr. Gavin Morley, lead author of the paper. "The most sensitive way to see the quantum behaviour of electrons held in silicon chips uses electrical currents. Unfortunately, the problem has always been that these currents damage the quantum features under study, degrading their usefulness."

Marshall Stoneham, Professor of Physics at University College London, commented: "Getting the answer from a quantum computation isn't easy. This new work takes us closer to solving the problem by showing how we might read out the state of electron spins in a silicon-based quantum computer."

To achieve the record quantum lifetime the team used a magnetic field twenty-five times stronger than those used in previous experiments. This powerful field also provided an additional advantage in the quest for practical quantum computing: it put the electron spins into a convenient starting state by aligning them all in one direction.

For more information, you can consult the paper published inPhysical Review Letters, November 14 2008, by G. W. Morley (London Center for Nanotechnology), D.R. McCamey (University of Utah), H.A. Seipel (University of Utah), L.-C. Brunel (National High Magnetic field Laboratory), J. van Tol (National High Magnetic field Laboratory) and C. Boehme (University of Utah).