Skip navigation links
Open menu
 
  CommunicationNewsNew materials for quantum technologies

News

New materials for quantum technologies

On Nature Materials the results of the experiment conducted in the laboratories of the University of Florence

A nanostructure based on magnetic and superconducting molecules with frontier quantum properties has been developed at the University of Florence. These are the news announced by the article published in the latest issue by the scientific journal Nature Materials and signed by the team coordinated by Roberta Sessoli, in collaboration with an international network which also includes researchers from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.

 

The new technology is based on the possibility of creating nanostructures in which the spin of the electrons of a molecule is used as a quantum sensor capable of interacting /cut in a controlled way/ with superconductive materials.

 

"Electronic spin is one of the fundamental properties of matter at the subatomic level and is the basis of the magnetic properties of materials, including the ability to store and manipulate information," explains Giulia Serrano, Unifi research fellow and first author of the article. "The spins have an intrinsically quantum nature and for this reason today cutting-edge research studies them as potential quantum-bits , that is as fundamental units of quantum computers alternative to those available today, based on superconducting microcircuits."

 

The researchers studied the magnetism of molecules in direct contact with a lead surface, a metal that becomes superconducting when cooled to temperatures below 7.2 Kelvin. "At such low temperatures the properties of the molecules are influenced by the surface of the superconductor which cancels the external magnetic field and accelerates the dynamics of the molecular spin - explains Serrano -. By studying these alterations we can better understand how superconductors work but also use them to control more effectively the quantum behaviour of the molecules that we would like to use as new quantum-bits."

 

"Although this is still basic research," comments Roberta Sessoli, a professor of general and inorganic chemistry at Unifi, "it is a starting point that will pave the way for potential applications in sensors and information technologies with the aim to overcome the current limits of quantum computers."

 

Watch the video

Publication
date
21 February 2020
social share Facebook logo Twitter logo
social share Facebook logo Twitter logo