Experimental Aspects of Quantum Computing

Practical quantum computing still seems more than a decade away, and researchers have not even identified what the best physical implementation of a quantum bit will be. There is a real need in the scientific literature for a dialogue on the topic of lessons learned and looming roadblocks. This reprint from Quantum Information Processing is dedicated to the experimental aspects of quantum computing and includes articles that 1) highlight the lessons learned over the last 10 years, and 2) outline the challenges over the next 10 years. The special issue includes a series of invited articles that discuss the most promising physical implementations of quantum computing. The invited articles were to draw grand conclusions about the past and speculate about the future, not just report results from the present.Practical quantum computing still seems more than a decade away, and researchers have not even identified what the best physical implementation of a quantum bit will be. There is a real need in the scientific literature for a dialog on the topic of lessons learned and looming roadblocks. These papers, which appeared in the journal of "Quantum Information Processing" are dedicated to the experimental aspects of quantum computing These papers highlight the lessons learned over the last ten years, outline the challenges over the next ten years, and discuss the most promising physical implementations of quantum computing.