Electric cooling could shrink quantum computers

https://spectrum.ieee.org/cryogenics

by mfiguiere • 3 years ago

70 11 3 years ago

spectrum.ieee.org

baz00• 3 years ago

Have they made them useful yet?

datameta• 3 years ago

I think what is missing (and I'm stretching my understanding here) is the right doping mixture and crystal structure to get a high enough efficiency of emissions from the junctions.

westurner3• 3 years ago

How does electric cooling compare to say optoelectronic laser cooling in terms of cost and efficiency?

Laser cooling: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_cooling

throw1234651234• 3 years ago

Is any of this used in practice? I don't see a "(Practical) Applications" section.

westurner3• 3 years ago

QC and Quantum Simulation:

/? laser cooling quantum simulation https://www.google.com/search?q=Laser+cooling+quantum+simula...

From https://phys.org/news/2016-04-laser-cool-quantum-liquid.amp :

In the experiments, the team created a superfluid helium film on a silicon chip.
They then used a bright laser beam to draw energy out of waves on the surface of the superfluid, cooling them.
In addition to laser cooling, the research team showed that combining superfluid with microphotonics allows extremely precise measurements of superfluid waves

Additionally, FWIU there are now inexpensive integrated lasers from which a laser cooling array could be built to enclose a QC sim

pfdietz• 3 years ago

It would be interesting if it were used to cool laser sails, which might enable very high power levels for interstellar travel. This of course is not currently possible for multiple reasons.

petsfed• 3 years ago

Based on the wikipedia article, macroscopic laser cooling is largely used for cooling gases.

Insofar as I'm aware, laser cooling is always used as the final stage of gas cooling, on top of more standard methods, because there are more efficient methods to go from e.g. room temperature to cryogenic temperatures, and cryogenic to near-absolute-zero temperatures and so on. The method in the article, as I understand it, is meant specifically to address the cooling that's typically done with e.g. liquid nitrogen and liquid helium, not necessarily what's done below Helium-4's condensation temperature. The article is definitely too vague to know if thermionic cooling addresses a Helium-3 stage or not.

gaze• 3 years ago

They have very different applications. Laser cooling has extremely low cooling power but can reach low temperatures. It’s good for cooling a gas of atoms or even individually trapped atoms.

A dilution refrigerator, as are used in superconducting quantum computing and other low temperature condensed matter experiments, could cool a sandwich. We’re talking maybe a milliwatt of cooling power. Electronic cooling — I don’t know.

westurner3• 3 years ago

Dilution refrigerator: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilution_refrigerator

Timeline of low-temperature technology: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_low-temperature_te...

gobdovan• 3 years ago

Devices - thermionic,

Cooling - electronic,

Atomic vibrations? Number of applications!

3-D integration and space exploration

Electric cooling could shrink quantum computers

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