Researchers Advance Understanding of Decoherence in Quantum Circuits

October 25, 2024

Oct. 25, 2024 — A team of researchers, led by scientist Lin Zhou of Ames National Laboratory, has made important progress towards understanding the role of surface oxides in improving quantum computing circuits performance. Surface oxides are a primary cause of decoherence, or loss of quantum properties in quantum circuits. The team is part of a larger effort by the Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center (SQMS) to improve quantum computers.

Scientists at Ames Laboratory measured magnetic field lines progressing into niobium films, using magneto-optical spectroscopy. This measurement is part of a larger research effort to analyze quantum materials down to the atomic level. With the data they collect, they hope to improve the reliability of circuits used in quantum computing.

SQMS center researchers are currently making a full investigation into the origin of decoherence. It can cause errors in quantum information and limit the time in which quantum information can be processed and stored. Decoherence is one of the biggest obstacles to the success of quantum computing technology.

“There is a lack of systemic understanding,” said Zhou. “What if we change one parameter during device fabrication? How will that change the material and the device performance?

Zhou explained that they are using various techniques to analyze material down to the atomic level. With the data collected, they aim to establish connections between specific defects in a device and coherence loss.

“Different types of microscopes help us understand what’s happening inside the material from different perspectives, allowing us to diagnose why a material exhibits certain properties,” said Zhou, who mainly uses electron microscopy to investigate material’s structure and chemistry.

“We try to see how atoms are arranged and whether there are suspicious features or defects linked to the device’s performance deterioration.”

In one project, Ames Lab scientists worked with researchers from Rigetti Computing, Fermi National Laboratory, and the Illinois Institute of Technology. By using advanced imaging and analysis techniques, they explored the relationship between material microstructures and resulting properties. This approach helped clarify how material structures can result in decoherence.

In another project, Ames Lab scientists compared a niobium-based material with a tantalum-based material. Zhou explained that niobium (Nb) and tantalum (Ta) are good superconductive materials with many similarities. But through their work, they unexpectedly found structural differences between the two that showed devices made with Ta film had better performance.

“It’s a bottom-up approach,” said Zhou. “We start by understanding the materials from the atomic level and applying that understanding to influence material growth and performance.”

This research is further discussed in:

Structure and Formation Mechanisms in Tantalum and Niobium Oxides in Superconducting Quantum Circuits,” written by Jin-Su Oh, Rahim Zaman, Akshay A. Murthy, Mustafa Bal, Francesco Crisa, Shaojiang Zhu, Carlos G. Torres-Castanedo, Cameron J. Kopas, Joshua Y. Mutus, Dapeng Jing, John Zasadzinski, Anna Grassellino, Alex Romanenko, Mark C. Hersam, Michael J. Bedzyk, Matt Kramer, Bi-Cheng Zhou, and Lin Zhou, and published in ACS Nano.

Exploring the relationship between deposition method, microstructure, and performance of Nb/Si-based superconducting coplanar waveguide resonators,” written Jin-Su Oh, Cameron J. Kopas, Jayss Marshall, Xiaotian Fang, Kamal R. Joshi, Amlan Datta, Sunil Ghimire, Joong-Mok Park, Richard Kim, Daniel Setiawan, Ella Lachman, Joshua Y. Mutus, Akshay A. Murthy, Anna Grassellino, Alex Romanenko, John Zasadzinski, Jigang Wang, Ruslan Prozorov, Kameshwar Yadavalli, Matt Kramer, and Lin Zhou, and published in Acta Materialia.

About SQMS

The Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center is one of the five U.S. Department of Energy National Quantum Information Science Research Centers. Led by Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, SQMS is a collaboration of more than 30 partner institutions — national labs, academia and industry — working together to bring transformational advances in the field of quantum information science.

About Ames National Laboratory

Ames National Laboratory is a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science National Laboratory operated by Iowa State University. Ames Laboratory creates innovative materials, technologies, and energy solutions. We use our expertise, unique capabilities, and interdisciplinary collaborations to solve global problems.


Source: Ames National Laboratory

Subscribe to HPCwire's Weekly Update!

Be the most informed person in the room! Stay ahead of the tech trends with industry updates delivered to you every week!

Boffo HPC Conference Sessions: Leicester 2024

November 11, 2024

Leicester was the center of the HPC universe on October 15-16 as the HPC/AI Advisory Council and DiRAC hosted their sixth annual UK conference.The theme this year was “Democratising HPC and AI Opportunities” was co Read more…

Top500 Wild Cards Could Add Thrills to Supercomputing 2024 Show

November 11, 2024

The fantastic Supercomputing 2024 show is coming back to Atlanta this year. If last year was any indication, there will be plenty of coffee flowing and lots of discussions around power efficiency, storage, and the future Read more…

The Growing E-Waste Footprint of GenAI

November 7, 2024

The rapid advancement of digital technologies has led to the proliferation of electronic devices and systems, resulting in an alarming increase in electronic waste (e-waste).  GenAI, in particular, requires substantial Read more…

OSI Open AI Definition Stops Short of Requiring Open Data for LLMs

November 6, 2024

The movement toward open source AI made progress today when the Open Source Initiative released the first Open Source AI Definition (OSAID). While the OSAID provides one step forward, the lack of requirements around open Read more…

D-Wave Readies 4,400-plus-qubit Advantage2 System for Use

November 6, 2024

Quantum computing pioneer D-Wave today announced it had completed calibration and benchmarking the latest latest version of its Advantage2 quantum processor, a 4,400-plus-qubit device. D-Wave said that compared with the Read more…

Microsoft Azure & AMD Solution Channel

Join Microsoft Azure and AMD at SC24

Atlanta, Georgia is the place to be this fall as the high-performance computing (HPC) community convenes for Supercomputing 2024. SC24 will bring together an unparalleled mix of scientists, engineers, researchers, educators, programmers, and developers for a week of learning and sharing. Read more…

Bill Gropp on ‘Different Approaches to AI’

November 6, 2024

Around this same time last year, I expounded on what the “Future of AI” may entail. A lot has happened in the 12 months since then, including new approaches, new trends and, yes, new complications. A lot of the ne Read more…

Top500 Wild Cards Could Add Thrills to Supercomputing 2024 Show

November 11, 2024

The fantastic Supercomputing 2024 show is coming back to Atlanta this year. If last year was any indication, there will be plenty of coffee flowing and lots of Read more…

OSI Open AI Definition Stops Short of Requiring Open Data for LLMs

November 6, 2024

The movement toward open source AI made progress today when the Open Source Initiative released the first Open Source AI Definition (OSAID). While the OSAID pro Read more…

Bill Gropp on ‘Different Approaches to AI’

November 6, 2024

Around this same time last year, I expounded on what the “Future of AI” may entail. A lot has happened in the 12 months since then, including new approaches Read more…

Shutterstock 1179408610

Google Cloud Sporting a New Look in HPC and AI Hardware

November 5, 2024

It's raining hardware at Google Cloud, with the company making major upgrades in advance of bringing Nvidia's Blackwell GPUs into its fold next year. The upg Read more…

Go (Mountain) West, Quantum Workers! CU, CUbit, and Elevate Quantum Issue Workforce Roadmap

November 5, 2024

Last week the University of Colorado (Boulder), the CUbit Quantum Initiative, and the Elevate Quantum consortium released workforce roadmap for educating and bu Read more…

Collaboration Speeds Complex Chemical Modeling

November 4, 2024

A recent collaboration among researchers from HUN-REN Wigner Research Centre for Physics in Hungary and the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National La Read more…

High-Performance Storage for AI and Analytics Panel

October 31, 2024

When storage is mentioned in an AI or Big Data analytics context, it is assumed to be a high-performance system. In practice, it may not be, and the user eventu Read more…

Shutterstock_556401859

Role Reversal: Google Teases Nvidia’s Blackwell as It Softens TPU Rivalry

October 30, 2024

Customers now have access to Google's homegrown hardware -- its Axion CPU and latest Trillium TPU -- in its Cloud service.  At the same time, Google gave custo Read more…

Sorry, but nothing matches what you're looking for. Please try again with some different keywords.

Leading Solution Providers

Contributors

CORNELL I-WAY DEMONSTRATION PITS PARASITE AGAINST VICTIM

October 6, 1995

Ithaca, NY --Visitors to this year's Supercomputing '95 (SC'95) conference will witness a life-and-death struggle between parasite and victim, using virtual Read more…

SGI POWERS VIRTUAL OPERATING ROOM USED IN SURGEON TRAINING

October 6, 1995

Surgery simulations to date have largely been created through the development of dedicated applications requiring considerable programming and computer graphi Read more…

U.S. Will Relax Export Restrictions on Supercomputers

October 6, 1995

New York, NY -- U.S. President Bill Clinton has announced that he will definitely relax restrictions on exports of high-performance computers, giving a boost Read more…

Dutch HPC Center Will Have 20 GFlop, 76-Node SP2 Online by 1996

October 6, 1995

Amsterdam, the Netherlands -- SARA, (Stichting Academisch Rekencentrum Amsterdam), Academic Computing Services of Amsterdam recently announced that it has pur Read more…

Cray Delivers J916 Compact Supercomputer to Solvay Chemical

October 6, 1995

Eagan, Minn. -- Cray Research Inc. has delivered a Cray J916 low-cost compact supercomputer and Cray's UniChem client/server computational chemistry software Read more…

NEC Laboratory Reviews First Year of Cooperative Projects

October 6, 1995

Sankt Augustin, Germany -- NEC C&C (Computers and Communication) Research Laboratory at the GMD Technopark has wrapped up its first year of operation. Read more…

Sun and Sybase Say SQL Server 11 Benchmarks at 4544.60 tpmC

October 6, 1995

Mountain View, Calif. -- Sun Microsystems, Inc. and Sybase, Inc. recently announced the first benchmark results for SQL Server 11. The result represents a n Read more…

New Study Says Parallel Processing Market Will Reach $14B in 1999

October 6, 1995

Mountain View, Calif. -- A study by the Palo Alto Management Group (PAMG) indicates the market for parallel processing systems will increase at more than 4 Read more…

  • arrow
  • Click Here for More Headlines
  • arrow
HPCwire