As the world pursues quantum computing, researchers across the globe have cracked a problem that has puzzled experts for over a decade. Australian researchers have figured out a new way to stabilize qubits that, if viable, could allow for long-term data storage. This could pave the way to quantum hard drives, capable of storing massive volumes of data.
Data Volume is Growing
Before getting into details, it helps to understand why there’s so much research into new, better ways to store data. Over time, the data we work with has become more complex, necessitating more compact, efficient ways to store memory. The first IBM hard drive could store 3.75 megabytes, and now hard drives deal with gigabytes and terabytes of data.
This didn’t just happen with secondary memory storage. The modern digital landscape also demands more RAM, which is used for video conferencing. Video calls boomed in 2020 and they’re around to stay, so it helps for modern computers to have more RAM than was needed in the past. Online entertainment also uses RAM, specifically video content like live streams. Through iGaming sites, users can join a stream and play live casino games like blackjack or roulette, all hosted by real people. That kind of interactive, streamed entertainment isn’t going anywhere in the future, and will only become more advanced with time. That’s why researchers are pushing the boundaries for all memory types, not just HDDs.
The 10-Year-Old Problem
With that understood, a big problem with quantum computing is qubit sensitivity. You can read more about qubits online for a more technical perspective of how they work. At its simplest, you should know that qubits don’t last very long – just milliseconds – and they’re vulnerable to the smallest of temperature changes or electromagnetic fields. This is why today’s existing quantum computers are held in lab vaults run by IBM or the Chinese government, temperature controlled at absolute zero. They’re even sheltered from the Earth’s natural magnetic field because that’s enough to kill qubits and render the whole computer unusable.
Naturally, this makes qubits untenable for use in long-term memory storage. Over the past decade, leading quantum experts have spent a lot of time and money just to extend qubit lifespan by a few extra nanoseconds. The hope is that one of these efforts will stumble upon a breakthrough, ushering in a new generation of computing.
The Qubit Stabilization Breakthrough
Enter the University of Sydney Nano Institute, bringing quantum computers closer to that breakthrough. In Australia, quantum information theorists Dr. Dominic Williamson and Nouédyn Baspin have revealed a new way to stabilize qubits and make quantum storage more viable. It also proposes a better way to create quantum switches, improving the computational efficiency of any computers that could result from this research. You can find the full study here, published in Nature.
The key to developing workable quantum computers (and storage) is correcting qubits and using as few of them as possible. In current models, a lot of qubits are used to form those switches, which are used to manage errors coming from the computer. This is called quantum overhead. Current error correction methods – called 3D correction – are limited to tackling qubits in a single dimension. Through their research, Williamson and Baspin figured out a way to correct qubits across two dimensions at once, due to how qubits are arranged in a lattice structure within quantum computers.
In a summary published by the University of Sydney, the researchers said: “By reducing the physical qubit overhead, the findings pave the way for the creation of a more compact ‘quantum hard drive’ – an efficient quantum memory system capable of storing vast amounts of quantum information reliably.”
Scalability is still a concern, but if solved, this new correction method could be key to developing quantum memory – and advancing the whole field of quantum computing.