Technology enabled by Quantum science will help researchers better understand the natural world and harness quantum phenomena to benefit society. They will transform healthcare, transportation and communications, and increase resilience to cyber threats and climate disasters. For example, quantum magnetic field sensors will allow imaging of brain function; quantum optical communications will enable encrypted communications; and quantum computers will facilitate the discovery of next-generation materials for photovoltaics and drugs.
Currently, these technologies rely on expensive and complex materials to prepare, and they often require expensive and cumbersome cryogenic cooling to operate. Such devices depend on precious commodities such as liquid helium, which becomes increasingly expensive as global supplies dwindle. The year 2023 will see a revolution in materials innovation for quantum, which will transform quantum technologies. In addition to reducing environmental demands, these materials will allow for room temperature operation and are energy efficient, while also having low cost and simple handling requirements. To optimize their quantum properties, research labs can manipulate the molecular structure and encapsulation. The good news is that physicists and engineers are very busy, and 2023 will see these materials move from the science lab to the real world.
Recently, the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council published an innovative vision of materials for quantum technology, led by Imperial College London and the University of Manchester. The London Center for Nanotechnology—a collaboration of hundreds of researchers at Imperial, King’s and University College London—has considerable expertise in the simulation and characterization of quantum systems. UK metrology headquarters—National Physics Laboratory—has just opened the Institute for Quantum Metrology, a multi-million pound facility dedicated to the characterization, validation and commercialization of quantum technology. Working together, researchers and industry will usher in a new era in pharmaceuticals, cryptography and cybersecurity.
Qubits, the building blocks of quantum computers, are based on materials whose quantum properties, like the spin of electrons, can be manipulated. Once we can exploit these properties, we can manipulate them using light and magnetic fields, creating quantum phenomena such as entanglement and superposition. Superconducting qubits, the most advanced qubit technology available today, include Josephson junctions that act as superconductors (materials that can conduct electricity without resistance) at extremely low temperatures (–273ºC). The operating requirements at high frequencies and extreme temperatures mean that even the most fundamental aspects of these superconducting qubits—the dielectrics—are very difficult to design. Currently, qubits include materials such as silicon nitride and silicon oxide, which are so flawed that the qubits themselves must be millimeter-sized to store electric field energy, and the crosstalk between adjacent qubits causes considerable noise. Achieving the millions of qubits needed for an actual quantum computer would be impossible with these materials.
2023 will see more innovations in material design for quantum technology. Of the many excellent candidates considered so far (e.g. nitrogen defect diamonds, van der Waals/2D materials and high-temperature superconductors), I am most interested in using molecular material. These materials are designed around a carbon-based organic semiconductor, which is an established material for the production of scalable consumer electronics (which has revolutionized the display industry). OLEDs are worth billions of dollars). We can use chemistry to control their optical and electronic properties, and the infrastructure around their development relies on established expertise.
For example, symmetric molecular materials—molecules that exist as a pair of mirror images that cannot overlap—will revolutionize quantum technologies. Thin, one-handed layers of these exceptionally flexible molecules can be used to control the rotation of electrons at room temperature. At the same time, the long spin coherence times and the good chemical and thermal stability of metal phthalocyanines would suggest they could be used to carry quantum information.
While 2023 is sure to see more bombastic headlines about the speed at which quantum computers work, materials scientists will research, discover and design the next generation of the technology. Quantum low cost, high efficiency and sustainable.
