The arrival of the Majorana 1 microchip has confirmed that the era of quantum computing is getting closer. But for this it is not only necessary to develop the correct microchips, too It is essential to have the appropriate facilities. And for a good reason.
Quantum computers obtain their incredible speed and power taking advantage of the spooky kingdom of quantum physics. Properties such as overlap, where particles can exist in two states at the same time, can allow They process large amounts of data simultaneously, while interlacing can “teleport” information effectively.
The problem is that these states are very sensitive to environmental interference, including heat. Therefore, quantum experiments and computers usually have to work and stay at cryogenic temperatures just a grade fraction above absolute zerowhere atoms hardly have energy.
Maintaining the equipment at that temperature is not an easy task, so IBM has now built a new type of “Supernevera”: Goldeneye. The idea behind this camera is a dilution refrigerator, which Use a helium-3 and helium-4 mixture to cool its content to the Milikelvin range (MK)or thousandths of grade above the absolute zero.
But Goldeneye has been designed to solve some problems in existing dilution refrigerators. To start, it contains a volume of 1.7 m3, two or three times larger than the previous similar devices. Also It is modular and has a shell design that allows the outer vacuum chamber to open laterally so that scientists can easily access the internal hardware.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0glxdw700g
It can also be equipped with different cold units that act at different temperatures, and Its weight of 6.7 tons helps reduce vibrations that can interfere with the quantum equipment. It is important to note that, despite the fact that the “fridge” itself is very large, only occupies a tenth of the existing dilution refrigerators space of equivalent power. All this can be synthesized in a simple way: it could be operated by teams of much smaller scientists.
In the tests, Goldeneye was able to cool to Only 25 mk, which is 1,000 times colder than the average temperature of the space. When the IBM team placed a quantum chip inside and cooled it, they could achieve a coherence time (the time that the cubits retain their information) of around 450 microseconds. It may not seem much, but it is on par with existing dilution refrigerators.