Atomic gold shield solves quantum chip noise problem without killing speed

tomwt — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 18:54:08 +0000

Atomic gold shield solves quantum chip noise problem without killing speed tomwt Thu, 07/31/2025 - 11:54 More CNAS in the Media Aamir Khollam | Interesting Engineering July 30, 2025

INTERESTING ENGINEERING - Quantum computing’s ability to solve problems that would take classical computers millennia has captured global interest.

But the path to functional, scalable quantum machines has been riddled with fundamental challenges.

At the heart of the problem lies the qubit, the quantum version of a digital bit.

Qubits can exist in multiple states simultaneously, but this delicate state, known as quantum coherence, is extremely sensitive to environmental interference.

Even atomic-scale flaws in the materials that host qubits can disrupt performance.

A physicist at the University of California, Riverside, may have cracked this persistent problem by adding a layer of gold just a few atoms thick.

Quantum computers rely on superconducting materials to manipulate and preserve qubits, which hold quantum information.

But imperfections at the surface of these superconductors have long created instability, introducing noise and causing fragile quantum states to collapse.

That flaw has prevented reliable scaling of quantum systems.

Peng Wei, associate professor of physics at UC Riverside, has developed a technique to coat niobium, one of the most widely used superconducting metals, with a uniform, ultra-thin gold layer.

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New 'gold-plated' superconductor could be the foundation for massively scaled-up quantum computers in the future

tomwt — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 18:58:54 +0000

New 'gold-plated' superconductor could be the foundation for massively scaled-up quantum computers in the future tomwt Tue, 11/12/2024 - 10:58 More CNAS in the Media Peter Ray Allison | Live Science November 12, 2024

LIVE SCIENCE - A new superconductor material could greatly improve the reliability of quantum computers, scientists say.

The electrical resistance of materials typically decreases as they are cooled. But some materials, called superconductors, maintain a gradually declining electrical resistance until they are cooled to their critical cut-off temperature, at which point their resistance becomes zero. Some types of superconductors, such as topological superconductors, can be used to transmit quantum data.

In a research paper published Aug. 23 in Science Advances, researchers at the University of California, Riverside, combined trigonal tellurium — a non-magnetic material and a type of chiral material (made of molecules that lack mirror-image symmetry) — with a thin film of gold.

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