Layered superconductor coaxed to show unusual properties with potential for quantum computing
A team led by researchers from the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA has designed a unique material based on a conventional superconductor. The experimental material showed properties signaling its potential for use in quantum computing, a developing technology with capabilities beyond those of classical digital computers.
The new material retained superconducting properties under a much higher magnetic field than a conventional superconductor. It also exhibited the superconducting diode effect, where one direction allowed notably higher current than the other. This is different from conventional superconductors, which would lose their zero-resistance property at equal current from either direction.
Quantum computers operate based on counterintuitive rules that govern how subatomic particles interact. The basic unit of information in quantum computing, the qubit, can have a multitude of values. Meanwhile, the bit—the basic unit of information in classical computing—can only have one of two values.
Researchers have theorized that an unconventional type of superconductor, called a chiral superconductor, may help increase qubits’ ability to maintain accuracy while performing a program’s steps. The new material showed properties signaling its potential for use in quantum computing.
The researchers created a lattice with alternating layers, one made of tantalum disulfide and the other made of a “left- or right-handed” molecular layer. They tested tiny nanoscale devices made from their lattice to evaluate whether the material showed the properties of a chiral superconductor.
Quantum computing may yield innovations such as unbreakable cybersecurity, supercharged artificial intelligence, and high-fidelity simulations of phenomena. To get to those applications, quantum computers will need to make leaps in their ability to function despite potential disturbances to fragile qubits.
Source: https://phys.org/news/2024-07-layered-superconductor-coaxed-unusual-properties.html