Researchers in China and the United States was reported to successfully conduct electricity nearly at the speed of light. The research detailed and published in three journals was said to delve deeper into the possibilities of future ultra-fast computers.
According to Science Daily, UCI associate professor of physics & astronomy Jing Xia stated that they are exploring the possibilities of topological quantum computers in the next 100 years. Xia and their team used his fiber-optic Sagnac interferometer microscope which is only one of the two super magnetic microscopes that he made. The tool was used since the compound they had developed is microscopic.
"This machine is the ideal measurement tool for these discoveries. It's the most accurate way to optically measure magnetism in a material," UCI graduate student Alex Stern, lead author on two of the papers stated. With that said, Xia along with his UCI researchers and colleagues from UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Princeton University, Fudan University and the University of Maryland conducted the experiment at extremely cold temperatures.
Furthermore, the three experiments were published separately in Nature, Science Advances and Nature Materials. The compound studied by the team was then called chromium germanium telluride (CGT) which was studied at a negative 387 degrees Fahrenheit. The study then mentioned that graphene, a super thin atomic carbon film is considered as a replacement for the silicon for next generation computers due to its speed.
Yet, graphene being a candidate of next generation silicon lacks something. Computer’s memory and storage systems were described to need both electronic and magnetic properties. Hence, compared to CGT, graphene only has magnetic properties but CGT has both per PDD Net.
Nonetheless, the 2D superconductor’s signal carrier was described to be Majorana fermions. In which is believed by scientists to be vital in quantum computing. Majorana or Dirac fermions were also described to have no mass and charge that could travel near the speed of light.
The team’s other study was mentioned to deal with a samarium hexaboride sample which they had concluded they could stabilize at minus 27 degrees Fahrenheit. The other study was mentioned to be that the interface of bismuth and nickel at minus 452 degrees Fahrenheit becomes "an exotic superconductor that breaks time-reversal symmetry."
