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Category: computing – Page 81

World’s first scalable, connected, photonic quantum computer prototype developed

A team of engineers, physicists and computer specialists at Canadian company, Xanadu Quantum Technologies Inc., has unveiled what they describe as the world’s first scalable, connected, photonic quantum computer prototype.

In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes how they designed and built their modularized quantum computer, and how it can be easily scaled to virtually any desired size.

As scientists around the world continue to work toward the development of a truly useful quantum computer, makers of such machines continue to come up with design ideas. In this new effort, the research team built a quantum computer based on a . Their idea was to build a single basic box using just a few qubits for the simplest of applications. As the need arises, another box can be added, then another and another—with all the boxes working together like a network, as a single computer.

Focus on organic transistors for health sensors within living organisms

QUT researchers are part of an international group who have explored ways in which organic transistors are being developed for use as wearable health sensors.

The currently available bioelectronic devices, such as pacemakers, that can be embedded with the are mostly based on rigid components.

However, the next-generation devices—which are researched and developed by bioelectronic engineers, , and materials scientists—will use soft organic materials that allow comfortable wearability as well as efficient monitoring of health.

Simulation aligns skyrmion dynamics with real-time experiments

Skyrmions are nanometer-to micrometer-sized magnetic whirls that exhibit particle-like properties and can be moved efficiently by electrical currents. These properties make skyrmions an excellent system for new types of data storage or computers. However, for the optimization of such devices, it is usually too computationally expensive to simulate the complicated internal structure of the skyrmions.

One possible approach is the efficient simulation of these magnetic spin structures as particles, similar to the simulation of molecules in biophysics. Until now, however, there has been no conversion between time and experimental real time.

Researchers explore new basis for integrated all-optical logic

A research team from Skoltech and ITMO university has obtained tunable polariton emission at room temperature on CsPbBr3 perovskite crystals as a promising platform for integration into lateral microchips—a new concept for the integrated all-optical logic that Skoltech researchers are working on.

The research results are presented in the Advanced Optical Materials journal.

Exciton-polaritons are hybridized states of light and matter, which are formed as a result of strong interaction of optical modes of microcavity—photons—with elementary excitations of a material—excitons.

A spintronic view of chiral molecules: Physicists verify chiral-induced spin selectivity effect

The role of electrons and their negative charge in electric current is well established. Electrons also exhibit other intrinsic properties that are associated, for example, with considerable potential for enhancing data storage devices: the electron’s spin or magnetic moment.

To date, however, the selection of specific spins has been challenging. It has been difficult to single out only those electrons with an up-direction of spin, for example. One way of doing this would be to pass a current through a ferromagnet, such as iron. This would result in the generation of a current in which the aligns with the direction of the magnetic field.

The alternative option of inducing a current in chiral molecules, i.e., molecules that have no superimposable mirror images, such as helix structures, has been discussed over the past decade. The result is spin polarization of approximately 60–70%, a level similar to that achieved in ferromagnetic materials. However, this approach remains a subject of ongoing debate and research.

Using phononic bandgap materials to suppress decoherence in quantum computers

Quantum computers have the potential of outperforming classical computers on some optimization and computational tasks. Compared to classical systems, however, quantum systems are more prone to errors, as they are more sensitive to noise and prone to so-called decoherence.

Decoherence is a process via which a quantum system loses its quantum properties due to interactions with its surrounding environment, causing a loss of quantum information and errors. This loss of coherence can be caused by a range of external disturbances, including material defects, temperature fluctuations and .

In recent years, physicists and engineers worldwide have been trying to devise effective methods to reduce decoherence and thus improve the reliability of quantum computers. The sources of decoherence in include so-called two-level systems (TLSs), which are a class of material defects that arise from the random switching between two energy states, which can disrupt the stability of qubits.

Emergence of a Second Law of Thermodynamics in Isolated Quantum Systems

To store ever more data in electronic devices of the same size, the manufacturing processes for these devices need to be studied in greater detail. By investigating new approaches to making digital memory at the atomic scale, researchers engaged in a public-private partnership are aiming to address the endless demand for denser data storage.

One such effort has focused on developing the ideal manufacturing process for a type of digital memory known as 3D NAND flash memory, which stacks data vertically to increase storage density.

The narrow, deep holes required for this type of memory can be etched twice as fast with the right and other key ingredients, according to a study published in the Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A.