Your laptop or phone could run a thousand times faster thanks to a quantum hack
Hardware features are just as important as internet connection speed. As phones and laptops get faster, this could change forever. The key is quantum leaps that have never been seen before.
Northeastern University researchers have found a novel method for manipulating electron states in quantum materials. The outcome? These gadgets might have a thousand times the speed.
It won't be a simple task. The behavior of quantum materials is extremely unstable, and they have strange properties that are not explained by quantum mechanics. Every little development is vital because the known laws of physics do not apply in this field.
A quantum material called 1T-TaS₂ has had its temperature altered by researchers at Northeastern University (USA). Combining two opposing electronic phases—insulating and conducting—is the key.
Because of its unique properties, 1T-TaS₂ can either open or block the flow of electricity, revolutionizing the semiconductor industry. The results of preliminary lab testing are encouraging.
Gregory Vietti, a physicist at Northeastern University, stated that "everyone who uses a computer reaches a point where they wish their device could charge faster." This inspired scientists to create household gadgets with previously unheard-of speeds.
It won't be simple to alter the processor speeds of traditional devices. In order to change the characteristics of 1T-TaS₂, researchers have chosen to use a method from quantum mechanics that uses light.
Gregory Vietti states in "We use light to control the properties of materials at the fastest speed that physics allows because nothing is faster than light."
the studyPublished in Nature Physics.
Future mobile phones will revolutionize the way conductive and insulating materials interact. Researchers are working on a single, smaller, and faster material that can be controlled by light to interact between the two states.
Researchers are talking about "thermal extinction," a technology that allows for cost savings by using more practical temperatures. 1T-TaS₂ would not require cryogenic freezing for months; the time would be reduced to a few seconds.
Researchers have succeeded in synchronizing temperature changes so that they are fast enough to be effective but not so fast that they collapse, as has been the case until now.
“We want to have maximum control over the properties of the materials,” says Vietti. “We want to achieve something extremely quickly and with a very safe result, because these are things that can later be used in devices.”
Researchers are reluctant to reveal when mobile phones will operate more than 1,000 times faster. "To achieve such dramatic improvements in data storage or operating speed, we need a new paradigm," he says.