Nanobolometer to Measure Your Cryostat’s Radiation, Keep Your Qubits Fresh
Radiation detector with the lowest noise in the world boosts quantum work
Excerpts and salient points ~
+ Researchers from Aalto University and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland have built a super-sensitive bolometer, a type of thermal radiation detector. The new radiation detector, made of a gold-palladium mixture makes it easier to measure the strength of electromagnetic radiation in real time. Bolometers are used widely in thermal cameras in the construction industry and in satellites to measure cosmic radiation.
In order to read quantum information in superconducting quantum computers several times in a row without it degrading in between, the bolometer would have to be about a hundred times faster’, Möttönen says.
+ The bolometer could also be used to read the value of quantum bits, or qubits. However, for this purpose, the bolometer would need to be even faster.
+ Quantum computers operate in cryostats, extremely cold super-freezers, in which even the smallest amount of excess radiation causes a lot of disturbance. As nanobolometers are very sensitive, they could conveniently measure the level of excess radiation in the cryostat in order to reduce the radiation through better protection’, Möttönen says.
Image Credit: Roope Kokkoniemi (Aalto University)
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