Researchers at the University of Surrey have proposed a new kind of qubit that could help address one of the biggest obstacles in quantum computing: keeping error rates low as systems become larger. The concept uses superfluid helium, a form of helium with unusual quantum properties, to create a qubit that may be less sensitive to some of the disturbances that affect today's leading quantum computers. Why Quantum Computers Struggle With Errors Quantum computers rely on qubits to store and process information in ways that conventional computers cannot.
Many current systems use superconducting circuits, but these are highly sensitive to electromagnetic noise and stray electrical charges - similar to the static electricity that can make hair cling to a balloon. Even very small disturbances can disrupt the fragile quantum information stored in a qubit. As more qubits are added, controlling those errors becomes increasingly difficult, making scalability one of the central challenges in quantum computing.
In a study published in npj Quantum Information, researchers from Surrey's Quantum Sciences Group describe a different approach built around superfluid helium-3 - an unusual form of liquid helium that can flow without friction. Their proposed device, called the Superfluid Helium Oscillator Quantum (SHOQ) device, would use charge-neutral superfluid helium. Because the helium carries no electric charge, the design could be naturally protected from certain types of electromagnetic noise.
A Qubit With Much Lower Predicted Error Rates According to the researchers, this is the first reported design for a qubit based on a superfluid. Their calculations suggest the SHOQ device could have error rates about 100 times lower than conventional superconducting qubits. Priya Sharma, Daphne Jackson Fellow in Hybrid Quantum Systems at the University of Surrey's School of Mathematics and Physics, and lead author of the study, said: "We are not the first to think about the individual components behind this idea, but what we have done for the first time is bring them together in a microfluidic device and work out the specific details that could enable the device to function as a qubit.
"The maths tells us that it should work. We have taken what we already know about superfluid helium and quantum technologies and turned that into an educated design, with the parameters and specifications needed to build one. The next step is to make a prototype and put those predictions to the test." Rather than replacing existing quantum computing hardware, the researchers say the SHOQ device could potentially be integrated with superconducting quantum technology.
That could allow different types of qubits to perform different jobs within the same system, depending on their strengths. One longer-term possibility is to use the SHOQ device as a form of quantum memory. In that setup, a superfluid based qubit could store quantum information while other hardware carries out calculations.
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