Tiny sound waves could help solve a major quantum computing problem
Harvard researchers have developed a method to use microscopic sound waves, known as phonons, to protect and transport quantum information on chips. This approach offers a more compact alternative to light-based systems for building future quantum networks.
Why it matters
Improving quantum memory stability is a critical hurdle in making quantum computing practical and scalable for real-world applications.
Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have demonstrated a new way to protect delicate quantum information using mechanical vibrations, essentially microscopic sound waves.
The advance, developed in the lab of Marko Lončar, Tiantsai Lin Professor of Electrical Engineering, could support the development of compact quantum networks built directly onto chips. It may also help enable hybrid quantum systems that combine several different kinds of quantum bits, or qubits.
The findings are published in Nature Physics . The experiments were led by Eliza Cornell, a recent Ph.D. graduate from the Lončar lab who is now a postdoctoral researcher at Boston University, and Zhujing Xu, a former postdoctoral scholar in Lončar's group.
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