2023-08-08 06:40:11
Integrating thousands of superconducting qubits into a single quantum computer is currently impossible. These qubits might not be kept in a single cooling device. Researchers are thinking regarding “relocating” qubits in refrigeration systems distributed in several buildings.
Quantum computers are a booming field of research today. They promise to solve very complex problems that cannot be solved by conventional computers.
But these computers are still far from being able to take over from conventional machines. Being designed in a totally different way, they are very susceptible to ambient noise and other issues, such as decoherence. They require error correction to enable them to perform accurate calculations.
“The big challenge for IBM in particular is to continue to increase the number of qubits while improving quality. But for now, the current 433 qubits are useless, because each operation generates 2% errors! It is therefore necessary to increase the number of qubits. But the technological options – like linking mini quantum computers together – have yet to be demonstrated.”underlines Olivier Ezratty, author specialized in quantum technologies and who knows IBM’s projects well.
30 meters away
Quantum computing still faces several challenges, including the increase in the number of qubits and the need to distribute them in different refrigeration systems. Various experiments have demonstrated that it is possible to connect two quantum dots close to each other.
In 2019, researchers at Princeton University demonstrated communication between two qubits half a centimeter apart on a silicon chip. In Japan, in 2022, a team from RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science succeeded in linking two physically distant qubits.
But increasing the distance seemed impossible until now. A team of researchers from ETH Zürich recently achieved a major milestone by demonstrating that it is possible to link qubits through different refrigeration systems. For now, the distance is 30 meters. It therefore does not make it possible to connect qubits distributed in different buildings.
“Our experiment demonstrates that quantum information can be transmitted between superconducting circuits housed in cryogenic systems separated by tens of meters, which goes beyond our previous work on a meter-scale system. Interconnected cryogenic systems may indicate a path towards the realization of larger-scale quantum computing systems using local quantum microwave networks, for example within a quantum computing center”, explains this team.
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