Newly developed world’s purest silicon will shape the future of quantum computing
Scientists have developed a new ultra-pure form of silicon that could pave the way for scalable quantum computers. Here are the details of the purest silicon ever developed:
Scientists at the University of Manchester and the University of Melbourne have produced a new form of ultrapure silicon. This form will enable the construction of high-performance qubit devices for scalable quantum computers, the basis of quantum computing.
Natural silicon works well in conventional computing due to its metalloid properties, but problems can arise when used in quantum computing. In particular, Si-29, one of the atoms that make up 5 percent of natural silicon, causes the nuclear flip-flop effect, which leads to mismatches and loss of information. To solve this problem, scientists have developed a new method for engineering silicon free of Si-29 and Si-30 atoms.
New form of ultrapure silicon will enable cheaper and more scalable quantum computing
Ten qubits have the same power as 1,024 bits in a normal computer, but in a much smaller volume. A fully performing quantum computer needs about one million qubits, a capability not possible by any classical computer. The world’s purest silicon developed so far could pave the way to the creation of those million qubits.
“Our technique paves the way for reliable quantum computers that promise step changes across society, including artificial intelligence, secure data and communications, vaccine and drug design,” said Professor David Jamieson of the University of Melbourne, co-advisor of the project.
Silicon-based qubits are much easier to produce than other types of qubits thanks to current chip manufacturing methods. Therefore, quantum computers using them could scale much faster to the million-qubit region than competing methods, the researchers said.
The researchers’ next step is to show that quantum coherence can be maintained simultaneously for many qubits. This is because even very small changes in their environment, such as temperature fluctuations, can cause the computer to fail.
