Seeing electron movement at fastest speed ever could help unlock next-level quantum computing

New technique could enable processing speeds a million to a billion times faster than today's computers and spur progress in many-body physics. Study: Attosecond clocking of correlations between Bloch electrons (DOI: 10.1038/s41586'022 -05190-2) (available when embargo lifts) The key to maximizing traditional or quantum computing speeds lies in our ability to understand how electrons behave in solids, and a collaboration between the University of Michigan and the University of Regensburg captured electron movement in attoseconds-the fastest speed yet. Seeing electrons move in increments of one quintillionth of a second could help push processing speeds up to a billion times faster than what is currently possible. In addition, the research offers a "game-changing” tool for the study of many-body physics. "Your current computer's processor operates in gigahertz, that's one billionth of a second per operation,” said Mackillo Kira , U-M professor of electrical engineering and computer science, who led the theoretical aspects of the study published in Nature. "In quantum computing, that's extremely slow because electrons within a computer chip collide trillions of times a second and each collision terminates the quantum computing cycle. "What we've needed, in order to push performance forward, are snapshots of that electron movement that are a billion times faster.