UNSW Scientists are making progress in their quest to build faster, stronger, and more efficient computers. A new collaboration paper between FLEET (the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronic Technologies), CQC T, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation Technology, and the University of British Columbia (Vancouver), Canada, shows that holes can be used to optimize operational speed and information coherence, thus scaling-up qubits in a miniature-quantum computer.

A spin of an electron is one way to create a quantum bit. It can point up or down. The FLEET scientists have made quantum computers as powerful and fast as possible by using only electric fields. They are not using any electrodes.

According to Dimi Culcer, Associate Professor at UNSW School of Physics and Researcher in Physics, a theoretical study has shown that holes can be used to solve problems. These holes are considered an absence of electrons, acting like positively-charged electrons.” This makes it possible to make a quantum bit resistant to charge fluctuations from the solid background.

The qubit’s sensitivity to noise is the lowest point. This is the sweet spot where it can operate the fastest. Dimi says that the study has shown that such a point is present in all quantum bits made of holes. It also provides guidelines for experimentalists in reaching these points in their labs.