MIT engineers have proven what they consider to be the strongest nonlinear optogen coupling in quantum systems, which may remove the major bottlenecks in quantum computing and bring fault-resistant quantum computers significantly closer to reality.
A research team led by Kevin O’Brien, an associate professor at MIT, created a dedicated superconducting circuit that enables quantum operations to execute 10 times faster than the current system. Their groundbreaking results are emerging this week in natural transmission.
“This will indeed remove a bottleneck in quantum computing,” explains Yufeng “Bright” Ye, the paper and the most recent MIT PhD graduate. “Usually, you have to measure the calculation results between rounds of error correction. This may speed up the speed of us being able to reach a stage of quantum computing that is prone to failure and being able to get real-world applications and values from our quantum computers.”
Advance is to improve the “coupling” between photons (particles of light that carry quantum information) and artificial atoms (units of matter that store information in quantum computers). When these components interact strongly, quantum computers can perform operations and measurements faster.
The researchers used a novel circuit architecture, a model featuring what the team calls a “discrete coupler” that enables coupling of nonlinear optical coupling, about 10 times stronger than previous demonstrations. This technological breakthrough can greatly reduce the time required for basic quantum operations.
This study is based on years of theoretical work on the O’Brien quantum coherent electron group by MIT. Ye joined the lab in 2019 and initially focused on developing professional photon detectors before inventing the Quarton coupler at the heart of this research.
Unlike traditional computing, stronger connections simply mean faster data transmission, quantum computing involves a refined quantum state that rapidly decays. These states have limited “coherence time”, meaning they can only maintain their quantum performance for a short time before accumulating errors.
By enabling faster operations, innovations from the MIT team allow quantum computers to perform more computations and error corrections in these limited coherent windows. This approach can help scientists overcome one of the fundamental challenges in quantum computing: maintaining quantum states is sufficient to perform useful calculations.
Ye explained: “The more error corrections you can go into, the lower the error will be.”
While traditional computers use bits representing 0 or 1, quantum computers use qubits or “Qubits” that exist in multiple states simultaneously. This property allows quantum computers to solve certain problems faster than classical computers, but also makes them very sensitive to noise and errors.
The MIT study did not immediately produce practical quantum computers, but it showed that fundamental physics that could greatly promote the field. The team is now working to incorporate its circuit design into a complete reading system that can be integrated into a larger quantum computing architecture.
Future applications of fault-resistant quantum computers may include rapid simulation of new materials, development of faster machine learning models, and solving complex optimization problems in various industries.
The research, supported by the Army Research Office, AWS Center for Quantum Computing and MIT Center for Quantum Engineering, highlights the growing collaboration between academic institutions and industry partners in advancing quantum technology.
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