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Oct 12, 2022

Seeing electron movement at fastest speed ever could help unlock next-level quantum computing

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

The key to maximizing traditional or quantum computing speeds lies in our ability to understand how electrons behave in solids, and a collaboration between the University of Michigan and the University of Regensburg captured electron movement in attoseconds—the fastest speed yet.

Seeing move in increments of one quintillionth of a second could help push processing speeds up to a billion times faster than what is currently possible. In addition, the research offers a “game-changing” tool for the study of many-body physics.

“Your current computer’s processor operates in gigahertz, that’s one billionth of a second per operation,” said Mackillo Kira, U-M professor of electrical engineering and , who led the theoretical aspects of the study published in Nature. “In , that’s extremely slow because electrons within a computer chip collide trillions of times a second and each collision terminates the quantum computing cycle.

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