Via InterestingEngineering.com: A world-first one-way superconductor could make computers 400 times faster
by Chris Young
There is a "very real chance" this will "revolutionize centralized and supercomputing".
In a world-first, a team of researchers from TU Delft demonstrated a one-way superconductor with zero resistance that blocks any current coming in the opposite direction.
The discovery could enable massive energy savings while making computers up to 400 times faster, according to a report in SciTech Daily.
Associate professor Mazhar Ali and a team at TU Delft published their new research in the journal Nature, outlining how their work on superconducting diodes could vastly boost the field of computing.
Superconductors
have the potential to make electronic devices hundreds of times faster
at the same time as eliminating energy losses. However, magnetic fields
have traditionally been required to prevent them from conducting in all
directions, meaning they haven't been practical for classical computing.
The
TU Delft team has provided an alternative method for controlling the
current direction in a superconductor without magnets. They used a novel
quantum material developed by a material physics team at Johns Hopkins
University called Nb3Br8. Similar to Graphene, the
material is atomically thin. Crucially, this specific material is
theorized to have its own electric dipole.
...
However, one obstacle the researchers need to overcome is the question
of usability at room temperature. The tests so far have been run at extremely cold temperatures
below 77 Kelvin (-196 °C, -321 °F). If the TU Delft team can figure out
how to run the JJ superconductor at more normal temperatures —
something Ali says is possible with "known High Tc Superconductors" —
then they will be much closer to the next step, which is to investigate
whether it can be scaled for mass production...
Full article: https://interestingengineering.com/400-times-faster-superconductor
