Abra Science

  Artist’s illustration of hydrodynamical behavior from an interacting ensemble of quantum spin defects in diamond. Credit: Norman Yao/Berkeley Lab In 1998, researchers including Mark Kubinec of UC Berkeley performed one of the first simple quantum computations using individual molecules. They used pulses of radio waves to flip the spins of two nuclei in a molecule, with each spin's "up" or "down" orientation storing information in the way that a "0" or "1" state stores information in a classical data bit. In those early days of quantum computers, the combined orientation of the two nuclei that is, the molecule's quantum state could only be preserved for brief periods in specially tuned environments. In other words, the system quickly lost its coherence. Control over quantum coherence is the missing step to building scalable quantum computers. Now, researchers are developing new pathways to create and protect quantum coherence. Do...

  In a rare non-magnetic kagome material, a topological metal cools into a superconductor through a sequence of novel charge density waves. Researchers have discovered a complex landscape of electronic states that can co-exist on a kagome lattice, resembling those in high-temperature superconductors, a team of Boston College physicists reports in an advance electronic publication of the journal Nature. The focus of the study was a bulk single crystal of a topological kagome metal, known as CsV3Sb5  a metal that becomes superconducting below 2.5 degrees Kelvin, or minus 455 degrees Fahrenheit. The exotic material is built from atomic planes composed of Vanadium atoms arranged on a so called kagome lattice described as a pattern of interlaced triangles and hexagons  stacked on top of one another, with Cesium and Antimony spacer layers between the kagome planes. The material offers a window into how the physical properties of quantum solids  such as light transm...