Quantum Computing Is A Step Closer To Reality With This New Material

While Google likes to believe that the tech giant has reached the point of “Quantum Supremacy,” it is far from the truth. As a matter of fact, Quantum computing is advancing at a ridiculously slower pace, thanks to the limited capabilities of the existing hardware.

However, the discovery of a new superconduction material might add to the necessary boost required to make a technological shift in Quantum Computing.

The researchers at Johns Hopkins University describe the new material as β-Bi2Pd. The specialty of the material is that it can exist in the quantum state naturally without exerting an influence of magnetic fields in order to realize the state.

Yufan Li, a postdoctoral fellow and the paper’s first author, said: “We’ve found that a certain superconducting material contains special properties that could be the building blocks for technology of the future.”

Quantum computing is different from the working of classic computers in our homes and offices. Unlike regular computing where the information is carried in either 0 or 1 bit, quantum mechanics allows an atom to be in both 0 and 1 state simultaneously. This bit of data, also the basic unit of quantum information, is called a qubit.

Where other superconducting materials require magnetic fields applied on each qubit in order to reach the quantum state, the new material naturally exists in a quantum superposition. The researchers noted that a ring of β-Bi₂Pd already exists where electric current can simultaneously flow clockwise and counter-clockwise

Recently, IBM announced a 53-qubit Quantum Computer that is soon going to be installed in IBM’s Quantum Computation Center in New York State. Even after tens of Quantum Computers available on IBM’s quantum network, it isn’t enough to turn Quantum Computing in a full-blown mainstream tech.

But authors of the study believe that the newly discovered superconducting material will bridge the biggest block in Quantum Computing, thanks to the stability and low maintenance of the material.