(ScienceAlert) Finding a superconductor that can act in the same way as silicon does in today’s computing is necessary for quantum computing to become fully realized. A team of researchers thinks that search might now be over.
Nick Butch, from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and his team stumbled on the quantum-friendly properties of UTe2 while investigating a variety of uranium-based magnets. His new study says the compound uranium ditelluride (UTe2)could be used to build logic circuits with qubits – those super-powerful quantum bits that can be in two states at once.. “You could use uranium ditelluride to build the qubits of an efficient quantum computer.”
The team thinks uranium ditelluride has a few more secrets to give up yet, both in regards to quantum computing and superconductors in general. “Exploring it further might give us insight into what stabilises these parallel-spin superconductors,” says Butch. “A major goal of superconductor research is to be able to understand superconductivity well enough that we know where to look for undiscovered superconductor materials.”
Superconductor UTe2 Could Be Key to a Whole Different Type of Quantum Computer
