{"id":147382,"date":"2022-10-02T09:22:18","date_gmt":"2022-10-02T14:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/new-superconducting-qubit-testbed-benefits-quantum-information-science-development"},"modified":"2022-10-02T09:22:18","modified_gmt":"2022-10-02T14:22:18","slug":"new-superconducting-qubit-testbed-benefits-quantum-information-science-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/new-superconducting-qubit-testbed-benefits-quantum-information-science-development","title":{"rendered":"New superconducting qubit testbed benefits quantum information science development"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve ever tried to carry on a conversation in a noisy room, you\u2019ll be able to relate to the scientists and engineers trying to \u201chear\u201d the signals from experimental quantum computing devices called qubits. These basic units of quantum computers are early in their development and remain temperamental, subject to all manner of interference. Stray \u201cnoise\u201d can masquerade as a functioning qubit or even render it inoperable.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why physicist Christian Boutan and his Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) colleagues were in celebration mode recently as they showed off PNNL\u2019s first functional superconducting qubit. It\u2019s not much to look at. Its case\u2014the size of a pack of chewing gum\u2014is connected to wires that transmit signals to a nearby panel of custom radiofrequency receivers. But most important, it\u2019s nestled within a shiny gold cocoon called a dilution refrigerator<\/a> and shielded from stray electrical signals<\/a>. When the refrigerator is running, it is among the coldest places on Earth, so very close to absolute zero, less than 6 millikelvin (about \u2212460 degrees F).<\/p>\n

The extreme cold and isolation transform the sensitive superconducting device into a functional qubit and slow down the movement of atoms that would destroy the qubit state. Then, the researchers listen for a characteristic signal, a blip on their radiofrequency receivers. The blip is akin to radar signals that the military uses to detect the presence of aircraft. Just as traditional radar systems transmit radio waves<\/a> and then listen for returning waves, the physicists at PNNL have used a low-temperature detection technique to \u201chear\u201d the presence of a qubit by broadcasting carefully crafted signals and decoding the returning message.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve ever tried to carry on a conversation in a noisy room, you\u2019ll be able to relate to the scientists and engineers trying to \u201chear\u201d the signals from experimental quantum computing devices called qubits. These basic units of quantum computers are early in their development and remain temperamental, subject to all manner of interference. [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1523,9,48,1617,224],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computing","category-military","category-particle-physics","category-quantum-physics","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147382\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}