(Inverse) Quantum computing is finally coming in from the cold. Warming up this frozen technology could bring it mainstream like never before. In order to even run these machines, they must first be stored in million-dollar fridges designed to keep their supercharged quantum bits, or qubits, at a chilly 1.1 degrees Kelvin (-458 degrees Fahrenheit.) The expense of cooling these superconducting qubits alone makes scaling them to a computationally significant number nearly impossible.
Scientists in two recent Nature studies have found a way to not only warm up these qubits but to scale them using everyday silicon materials instead of superconducting ones. This innovation would save hundreds of thousands of dollars and could finally bring important quantum computing benefits.
Published back-to-back this past week in Nature, researchers from the Netherlands and Australia have revealed in two complementary studies a way to design qubits that can operate at temperatures 15 times warmer than existing models.
Additional info on those two studies from IQT-NEWS: