Communications of the ACM
Material May Offer Key to Solving Quantum Computing Issue
Explained Penn State's Jun Zhu, “How to minimize the negative effect of a classical environment, which causes error in the operation of a quantum computer, is a key problem in quantum computing.”
Credit: Elizabeth Floresgomez Murray
An international team of researchers has discovered that a novel form of heterostructure made up of layered two-dimensional (2D) materials could help overcome the major obstacles to the widespread use of quantum computing.
The study, which was published in the journal Nature Materials, was conducted by a team from the Penn State Center for Nanoscale Science (CNS), which is one of the 19 Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSEC) in the US supported by the National Science Foundation.
A regular computer consists of billions of transistors, known as bits, and are governed by binary code ("0" = off and "1" = on). A quantum bit, also known as a qubit, is based on quantum mechanics and can be both a "0" and a "1" at the same time. This is known as superposition and can enable quantum computers to be more powerful than the regular, classical computers.
There is, however, an issue with building a quantum computer.
"IBM, Google, and others are trying to make and scale up quantum computers based upon superconducting qubits," said Jun Zhu, Penn State professor of physics and corresponding author of the study. "How to minimize the negative effect of a classical environment, which causes error in the operation of a quantum computer, is a key problem in quantum computing."
From Pennsylvania State University
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