There are a seemingly endless number of quantum states that describe quantum matter and the strange phenomena that emerge when large numbers of electrons interact. For decades, many of these states have been theoretical: mathematical and computational predictions potentially hiding among real-life materials—a zoo, as many scientists are coming to refer to it, with new "species" just waiting to be discovered and described.
In a new study published on April 3 in Nature, researchers added over a dozen states to the growing quantum zoo.
"Some of these states have never been seen before," said lead author Xiaoyang Zhu, Howard Family Professor of Nanoscience at Columbia. "And we didn't expect to see so many either."
Among them are states that could be used to create what is known, theoretically at the moment, as a topological quantum computer. Topological quantum computers will have unique quantum properties that should make them less prone to the errors that hinder quantum computers, which are currently built with superconducting materials.
But superconducting materials are disrupted by magnets, which have until now been used in attempts to create the topological states needed for this (still unrealized) next generation of quantum computers. Zhu's zoo solves that problem: The states he and his team discovered can all be created without an external magnet, thanks to the special properties of a material called twisted molybdenum ditelluride.
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