Faster search for diamond qubits, via small molecules
Published
A new computing method could speed up the search for diamond materials for quantum computers and sensors. Mark Martirez, a staff research scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, developed it. The work was published in ACS Central Science.
Diamond qubits are built from defects, places where a carbon atom is missing or replaced by another element. Modelling their quantum behaviour has been expensive because the full crystal is large. Martirez cuts out a small region of 16 to 30 atoms around each defect and treats it like a molecule, so that chemistry methods can be used on it.
The method speeds up calculations of how a defect responds to laser light and microwave pulses. The team used it to find promising defects involving boron and oxygen as possible new types of qubit. So far, most of the work in this field has centred on the nitrogen-vacancy centre, which emits red light under laser illumination.
These are predictions from calculation, not devices. The article does not say whether any boron-oxygen defect has been made or tested in a lab.
Why it matters: a faster way to screen candidates could help pick materials for quantum technology before lab work starts.
What do you think: can a computer screen find a better qubit than the ones people have already studied?
Sources: ScienceDaily