A team of scientists from the University of Minnesota in the United States has created a new super -conducting diode that can help scale quantum computers for industrial use and increase the performance of artificial intelligence systems. Compared to other super -conductive diodes, the device of researchers is more energy efficient, can process several electrical signals at the same time and contains a number of shutters for controlling the energy flow, which has never previously been introduced into the supercoming diodes. article published in the journal Nature Communication >.
The diode allows the current leak in one direction in the electric circuit. This is essentially half the transistor, the main element in computer chips. Diodes are usually made of semiconductors, but scientists are interested in creating them from superconductors who have the ability to transmit energy without loss of power along the way.
“We want to make computers more powerful, but soon we will encounter some strict restrictions because of our current materials and manufacturing methods,” said Vlad Zabyag, senior author of the article and associate professor of the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Minnesota. “We need new ways to develop computers, and one of the biggest problems to increase computing power now is that they dispel so much energy. Therefore, we think about the ways that supercoming technologies can help in this.”
Scientists from the University of Minnesota created a device using three Josephson transitions, which consist of layers of non -conductive material between super -conductors. In this case, the researchers connected the superconductors with layers of semiconductors. The unique design of the device allows scientists to use the voltage to control the behavior of the device. Their device also has the ability to process several input signals, while typical diodes can work only one input and one output. This function can find the application in neuromorphic calculations, the method of creating electrical circuits to simulate how neurons function in the brain to increase the performance of artificial intelligence systems.
“The device that we have made has close to the highest energy efficiency that has ever been demonstrated, and for the first time we showed that you can add bolt and apply electric fields to configure this effect,” Mohit Gupta, the first author of the article, explained and graduate student of the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Minnesota.