Researchers design a superfluid helium qubit that could be 100 times less error-prone

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Researchers at the University of Surrey, working with Northwestern University, have proposed a new type of qubit built using superfluid helium. Their design is called the Superfluid Helium Oscillator Quantum device, or SHOQ, and they believe it is the first qubit design based on a superfluid. The work, led by Dr Priya Sharma with Dr Eran Ginossar and Professor Jens Koch, is published in the peer reviewed journal npj Quantum Information. It is a nice UK quantum story to go with the Manchester and Edinburgh work we have covered

The idea tackles a major problem with today's superconducting qubits, which are very sensitive to electromagnetic noise and stray electrical charges. Superfluid helium is charge neutral, so it is naturally immune to some of those noise sources. The design uses superfluid helium-3 inside a microfluidic device. The team's calculations suggest error rates could be around 100 times lower than conventional superconducting qubits

It is important to be clear that this is theoretical for now. Dr Sharma said the maths tells us it should work, and that the next step is to build a prototype and put the predictions to the test. The team has an IAA Commercialisation Fellowship to support that work. Plenty of promising designs run into problems once they leave the page, so it is too early to get carried away

Dr Ginossar also made the point that combining different quantum technologies could let researchers use the strengths of each. That fits a theme we keep seeing, with hybrid approaches from Quandela's spin-photon interfaces to Rigetti boosting classical solvers. No single type of qubit has won yet, and new ideas like this keep the field interesting

A hundred times fewer errors would be a huge deal if it holds up, as error correction is the biggest barrier to useful quantum computers. Do you think exotic designs like this have a real chance against superconducting and neutral atom qubits? Or will the established approaches win simply because they are further ahead?

This new qubit could be 100 times less error-prone in superfluid quantum computer breakthroughwww.sciencedaily.com