We May Finally Soon Have The Ideal Building Block For Quantum Computers

We already have quantum computers of a sort, but at the moment they are not practical or reliable enough to fully realize the massive potential of the technology.

The ideal building block for a quantum computer is being worked on by scientists.

The building blocks are called qubits. Unlike classical computer bits, which store either 1 or 0 at any one time, these qubits can exist in a simultaneous 0 and 1 state.

The quantum capability promises a huge leap in computing power.

There are many ways to build a qubit, and the vision outlined in the new research is potentially the closest to an ideal qubit yet.

There is a single electron on top of frozen neon gas. The electron can be manipulated.

Thanks to the relative simplicity of the electron-on-neon platform, it should lend itself to easy manufacture at low cost, says quantum physicist Dafei Jin.

It would appear that an ideal qubit may be on the horizon.

The scientists set three main criteria for the new qubit. The need for it to remain stable over a long period of time is known as quantum coherence. A long time is around a second in quantum computing.

The neon surface is very resistant to interference. By trapping the electron in a vacuum, it is possible to manipulate the qubit for any task at hand.

Qubits need to be able to be changed from one state to another very quickly. They need to be able to be easily linked with other qubits.

The power and potential of full quantum computing will be unlocked by those parallel multi-qubit operations.

The superconductor-based microwave resonator is a key part of the new qubit and is crucial in reading the state of the qubit and measuring how well it is working.

For the first time ever, a single electron in a near-vacuum environment and a single microwave photon can be coupled.

This opens up the possibility to link many electron qubit to a quantum processor by using microwave photons.

The test was done in a scientific instrument called a dilution refrigerator, which can reduce temperatures to a mere 10 degrees above absolute zero.

We are not at the stage of being able to pack qubits like these inside laptops just yet. The qubit is performing at the same level as alternatives that have been in development for decades.

The researchers behind the new technology think that the solution they have come up with could be the most promising one yet.

Jin says that their goal is not to compete with those companies, but to discover and construct a fundamentally new qubit system that could lead to an ideal platform.

The research has been published.