Quantum computers are getting faster and faster and breaking a new record, performing one of the fundamental operations of these devices in just 6.5 billionths of a second (nanoseconds).
The 15 nanosecond record, held since 2020 by the division of Google dedicated to Artificial Intelligence (Google AI), was thus beaten.
The result, obtained thanks to super-cold atoms and very fast laser pulses, was obtained by the Japanese National Institute for Natural Sciences and is published in the journal Nature Photonics.
The new method made it possible to escape the disturbing effects of external noise, which affect computational accuracy, a goal pursued for over twenty years.
Researchers led by Yeelai Chew used two rubidium atoms cooled to almost absolute zero (-273.15 degrees Celsius), trapped thanks to optical tweezers at a distance of one micron (one millionth of a meter) from each other. .
By manipulating the atoms with a special laser light fired for just 10 picoseconds (one picosecond equals one trillionth of a second), the study's authors were able to perform an essential quantum operation in just 6.5 nanoseconds, called the 'two-qubit gate. '(the quantum information unit).
Quantum gates are the analogue of the digital logic gates of conventional computers and in particular those based on two qubits are fundamental because they allow to obtain entanglement, the typical phenomenon of quantum physics:
Quantum computers based on super-cold atoms are rapidly attracting the attention of industry, academia and governments around the world, as this method is able to overcome some of the limitations encountered by superconductor-based devices, which at the moment they are the most advanced type of quantum computers.
