Discovery of new material is key step toward more powerful computing

A new material created by Oregon State University researchers is a key step toward the next generation of supercomputers.

Those "quantum computers" will be able to solve problems well beyond the reach of existing computers while working much faster and consuming vastly less energy.

Researchers in OSU's College of Science have developed an inorganic compound that adopts a crystal structure capable of sustaining a new state of matter knownasquantum spin liquid, an important advance toward quantum computing.

In the new compound, lithium osmium oxide, osmium atoms form a honeycomb-like lattice, enforcing a phenomenon called "magnetic frustration" that could lead to quantum spin liquid as predicted by condensed matter physics theorists.

Corresponding author Mas Subramanian, Milton Harris Professor of Materials Science at OSU, explains that in a permanent magnet like a compass needle, the electrons spin in an aligned manner - that is, they all rotate in the same direction.

"But in a frustrated magnet, the atomic arrangement is such that the electron spins cannot achieve an ordered alignment and instead are in a constantly fluctuating state, analogous to how ions would appear in a liquid," Subramanian said.

The lithium osmium oxide discovered at OSU shows no evidence for magnetic order even when frozen to nearly absolute zero, which suggests an underlying quantum spin liquid state is possible for the compound, he said.