“The materials we made are substances that exhibit unique electrical or quantum properties because of their specific atomic shapes or structures,” says Luis A. Jauregui, professor of physics & astronomy at the University of California, Irvine, and lead author of the paper published in Nature Communications.
“Imagine if we could transform glass, typically considered an insulating material, and convert it into efficient conductors akin to copper. That’s what we’ve done.”
Conventional computers use silicon as a conductor, but silicon has limits. Quantum computers stand to help bypass these limits, and methods like those described in the new study will help quantum computers become an everyday reality.
“This experiment is based on the unique capabilities that we have at UCI for growing high-quality quantum materials. How can we transform these materials that are poor conductors into good conductors?” says Jauregui, who’s also a member of UCI’s Eddleman Quantum Institute.
“That’s what we’ve done in this paper. We’ve been applying new techniques to these materials, and we’ve transformed them to being good conductors.”
The key, Jauregui says, was applying the right kind of strain to materials at the atomic scale. To do this, the team designed a special apparatus called a “bending station” that allowed them to apply large strain to change the atomic structure of a material called hafnium pentatelluride from a “trivial” material into a material fit for a quantum computer.
“To create such materials, we need to ‘poke holes’ in the atomic structure,” says Jauregui. “Strain allows us to do that.”
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