The world's researchers have yet to build a quantum computer of any significant size. But maybe they just need a little Scotch tape.
Researchers at the University of Toronto recently used some two-sided Scotch poster tape — yes, two-sided Scotch poster tape — to transfer superconducting properties to a semiconducting material. That semiconductor is similar to what you'd find in most of today's microprocessors, and if you give it superconducting properties, you may have the makings of an honest-to-goodness quantum computer.
A quantum computer can bust beyond the binary. Today's transistors stores information in bits. Each bit stores either a "1″ or a "0." But a quantum computer stores information in qubits, which can store multiple pieces of information at the same time. Because the base units of quantum computing can hold so much more information, scientists think that it could someday eclipse digital computing, giving us more powerful ways to break encryption codes or crunch big data problems.
The trouble is that nobody has yet figured out how to build a large-scale quantum computer. It's an open area of research, one that's punctuated with regular scientific breakthroughs. One problem is something called decoherence. For quantum computing to work, particles must interact with each other, but they can't unduly influence each other's state, causing the qubits to "decohere" — i.e., collapse so that they hold only one value rather than multiple values.
That's where superconductors come into play. These compounds can conduct energy very efficiently, without resisting electrons or leaking heat. They need to be operated at extremely cold temperatures — somewhere in the 90 degrees Kelvin range — but because superconductivity reduces decoherence, it's a natural fit for the quantum computing world.
Ken Burch and Parisa Zareapour operate a glove box at the University of Toronto. Photo: Diana Tyszko
"People have thought for a long time that superconductors would be very useful for devices because the electrons are all in one quantum state," says Ken Burch, an assistant professor with the University of Toronto.
But the chip in your smartphone or PC isn't made out of superconducting material. The problem is: How do you build a quantum chip using today's chip-making processes? How do you add superconducting to a semiconductor?
To date, scientists have baked superconducting properties into semiconductors using different chemical processes. But Burch and his researchers went for something much more basic. "We literally just took double-sided tape and a glass slide and we made sandwich," he says.
First, they squished the semiconducting compound onto a double sided tape. "We then took the high temperature superconductor, we did the same thing and then we literally just made a sandwich of the two of them."
Burch and his team have published their findings, which they call a "phsyics first," in Nature Communications, an online scientific journal.
Sometimes the simplest answer is the easiest. Even when you're building a quantum computer.
Spencer Ackerman 18 Sep, 2012
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Source: http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/1LGW9eWiQZ8/
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