What is it about?
We have shown a first step toward using liquid metal interconnects in a quantum computer. Such interconnects have provided comparable high-quality performance to conventional coplanar waveguide resonators, which could serve as quantum buses between qubits.
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Why is it important?
Quantum computers need enough qubits to be practically attractive. However, superconducting qubits, one of the leading candidates for practical quantum computers, suffer from fabrication defects and aging, setting an exponentially significant failure rate when scaling the qubit count. If we divide a large system into smaller modules with plug-and-play capabilities, we can replace the malfunctioned unit without sacrificing the entire system. Liquid metal interconnects seem promising as they can be self-healing at room temperatures and become superconducting at low temperatures. Meanwhile, they can be microscale with proper printing techniques. Combining these traits could help reduce the prototyping cost of large quantum computers and break through the qubit failure rate limit while taking up minimum overhead.
Perspectives
I am very excited to see the preliminary but promising results. The technology could enable large-scale quantum computers and bridge a new dialogue between quantum computing and wearable electronics research communities. I hope this work can initiate new avenues of quantum architectural development.
Zhancheng Yao
Boston University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Low-loss liquid metal interconnects for superconducting quantum circuits, Applied Physics Letters, June 2024, American Institute of Physics,
DOI: 10.1063/5.0211244.
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