Evrim Yazgin
Cosmos science journalist
A new quantum device might help discover new, complex materials that can be used to design high-performance electronics.
Next generation electronics will be made using faster, more powerful and more energy efficient materials. This includes semiconductors, insulators and superconductors.
Findings such new materials can be laborious. Scientists spend a lot of time, energy and resources synthesising them. It’s a lot of effort which may just end up resulting in a material showing that it’s not up to the task.
There is a more efficient way of working out the physical properties of a material: simulation.
Currently, for complex materials, researchers have to use the world’s most powerful supercomputers to mimic the chemical composition and determine the materials’ properties.
Quantum computers promise to be able to perform the simulations much faster and emulate more complex chemistries. But these devices are a way off yet. Quantum simulators suffer from quantum “noise” which can cause errors in calculations.
A new device developed by researchers at MIT has been effective in generating synthetic electromagnetic fields and simulate how electrons move between atoms in the presence of an electromagnetic field.
The research is published in the journal Nature Physics which explains that the device comprises 16 superconducting quantum bits, or qubits which allows the researchers to test a range of material properties.
The device is considered an “analogue” quantum simulator because the chemistry of a material is hardwired into the arrangement of the qubits themselves.
“General-purpose digital quantum simulators hold tremendous promise, but they are still a long way off,” says lead author Ilan Rosen, an MIT postdoc. “Analogue emulation is another approach that may yield useful results in the near-term, particularly for studying materials. It is a straightforward and powerful application of quantum hardware.”
Quantum simulators which can describe the chemistry of different compounds do exist. But most don’t show what happens if these materials are subjected to external fields – you can’t just put a quantum simulator in an electromagnetic field because its effects don’t translate to the qubits.
The MIT team got around this problem by “coupling” nearby qubits together. This allows the microwave photons to “hop” between qubits just like electrons would “hop” between atoms when subjected to an electromagnetic field.
“The beauty of quantum computers is that we can look at exactly what is happening at every moment in time on every qubit, so we have all this information at our disposal. We are in a very exciting place for the future,” adds Rosen.
Issue 105 of Cosmos Magazine out December 5 will contain a 22 page feature: “Quantum Australia’s new horizon,” including a broader article by Evrim Yazgin on the physics of quantum simulators. Subscribe to get your copy.
