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Future quantum computer systems may very well be based mostly on electrons floating above liquid helium, in accordance with examine by a RIKEN physicist and collaborators, showing in Bodily Evaluate Utilized.
Right this moment’s computer systems are based mostly on shuttling electrons round in silicon. Electrons in silicon might additionally kind the idea of a very completely different breed of computer systems—quantum computer systems. Quite a few efforts are underway to understand quantum computer systems utilizing electrons in numerous solid-state crystals, beginning with silicon.
By exploiting the quantum nature of tiny objects, quantum computer systems promise to revolutionize computing by fixing issues which might be intractable utilizing probably the most highly effective supercomputers obtainable right now.
Whereas efforts to create qubits utilizing electrons in solid-state crystals have achieved vital success, growing the variety of qubits (the quantum equal of bits) is difficult as a result of defects and impurities in solid-state crystals create unpredictable electrical potentials, making it tough to provide many uniform qubits.
One method to overcome this drawback can be to make use of electrons floating in a vacuum as qubits, since vacuum is defect free.
“Strong-state crystals will at all times have some defects, which suggests we can not create an ideal atmosphere for electrons,” says Erika Kawakami of the RIKEN Heart for Quantum Computing. “That’s problematic if we need to create a whole lot of uniform qubits. And so it is higher to have qubits in vacuum.”
In 1999, researchers theoretically proposed to understand qubits based mostly on electrons floating on liquid helium for the primary time. On this bodily system, electrons float in vacuum barely above the floor of liquid helium. This was a groundbreaking proposal, but it surely was restricted to fundamental operations of quantum gates as a result of quantum-computer analysis was nonetheless in its infancy.
Now, in a theoretical examine, the group has proven how the quantum gates may be realized extra concretely utilizing electrons floating above liquid helium.
Central to their proposal is a hybrid qubit involving the vertically quantized cost state and the spin state of a floating electron. The cost state of the electron permits it to be simply manipulated over reasonable distances utilizing an electrical subject, whereas the spin state can be utilized to stably retailer knowledge. The interplay between the spin and cost states of the electron permits knowledge to be transferred between the 2 electron properties.
“We have proposed notice one-qubit and two-qubit gates utilizing electrons on helium and estimated their fidelities,” says Kawakami. “We have additionally specified how we will scale up the variety of qubits. That’s one thing new.”
Their system makes use of an array of tiny ferromagnetic pillars to entice electrons above helium. It needs to be doable to squeeze greater than 10 million qubits into an space the dimensions of a postage stamp.
The group now intends to embrace the problem of implementing their proposal experimentally.
Extra data:
Erika Kawakami et al, Blueprint for quantum computing utilizing electrons on helium, Bodily Evaluate Utilized (2023). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevApplied.20.054022. On arXiv: DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2303.03688
Journal data:
Bodily Evaluate Utilized
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arXiv