Researchers used an acoustic chip to generate and control sound waves





Researchers are eyeing quantum systems, which tap the quirky behavior of the smallest particles as the key to a fundamentally new generation of atomic-scale electronics for computation and communication. But transferring information between different types of technology, such as quantum memories and quantum processors is a persistent challenge.miniature sound module

The new study is an important step in bringing quantum technology closer to reality.

“We approached this question by asking: Can we manipulate and connect quantum states of matter with sound waves?” says senior author David Awschalom, professor with the Institute for Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago and senior scientist at Argonne National Laboratory.
One way to run a quantum computing operation is to use “spins”—a property of an electron that can be up, down, or both. Scientists can use these like zeroes and ones in today’s binary computer programming language. But getting this information elsewhere requires a translator, and scientists thought sound waves could help.

“The object is to couple the sound waves with the spins of electrons in the material,” says graduate student Samuel Whiteley, the co-first author on the paper. “But the first challenge is to get the spins to pay attention.”So researchers built a system with curved electrodes to concentrate the sound waves, like using a magnifying lens to focus a point of light.

The results were promising, but they needed more data. To get a better look at what was happening, they worked with scientists at the Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne to observe the system in real time.

Essentially, they used extremely bright, powerful X-rays from the lab’s giant synchrotron, the Advanced Photon Source, as a microscope to peer at the atoms inside the material as the sound waves moved through it at nearly 7,000 kilometers per second (around 4350 miles per second).