At a Glance
- Physicists at ETH Zürich developed the first-ever mechanical qubit, offering improved stability and reliability for quantum computing compared to traditional virtual qubits prone to errors.
- Unlike traditional qubits reliant on electromagnetic fields, the mechanical qubit uses a vibrating membrane, akin to a drum skin, to hold information in superposition states.
- A piezoelectric disk on a sapphire base is a mechanical resonator coupled with a superconducting qubit, resulting in longer coherence times and reduced errors.
- The team plans to enhance the mechanical qubit by experimenting with different materials and integrating it with quantum gates for more comprehensive testing.
- This innovation is critical to achieving more stable and reliable quantum computing technologies.
Physicists at ETH Zürich have created the first-ever working mechanical qubit, a breakthrough that could bring us closer to the long-sought goal of fully functional quantum computers. Their new approach, detailed in the journal Science, tackles a longstanding issue in quantum computing: the instability of virtual qubits, which often generate errors that must be corrected. By using a mechanical qubit instead of a virtual one, the team has achieved a more stable system that could improve the reliability of quantum computing.
Quantum computers differ from classical computers in how they store and process information. While classical computers use binary bits that represent either a 1 or a 0, quantum computers use qubits, which can represent both states simultaneously due to a property called superposition. The ETH Zürich team designed a new qubit that uses a vibrating membrane, similar to a drum skin, to hold information simultaneously in a steady state, a vibrating state, or both.
The researchers solved a significant challenge with qubits: their short lifespan. Traditional qubits, especially those using electromagnetic fields, tend to exist briefly before disappearing, leading to potential errors. The team used a piezoelectric disk (which converts mechanical energy into electrical energy) attached to a sapphire base as a mechanical resonator to address this. Using a unique fabrication method, they added a superconducting qubit to the resonator. This new mechanical qubit had longer coherence times, meaning it could hold information more stably than traditional or hybrid qubits.
The team plans to continue refining their design, testing it with different materials to improve performance. They also aim to see how well the mechanical qubit performs when integrated into quantum computers, specifically testing it with quantum gates, which are essential for computing tasks. This advancement marks a significant quest for more reliable quantum computing technologies.
References
- Yang, Y., Kladarić, I., Drimmer, M., Von Lüpke, U., Lenterman, D., Bus, J., Marti, S., Fadel, M., & Chu, Y. (2024). A mechanical qubit. Science, 386(6723), 783–788. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adr2464
- Yirka, B. & Phys.org. (2024, November 15). Physicists create the first fully mechanical qubit. Phys.Org; Phys.org. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-physicists-fully-mechanical-qubit.html
