A collaboration between researchers from Virginia Tech and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in the US has built a chip-scale device that can trap and control sound waves in a way that mimics the behavior of real atoms. Sound waves can be used to process and route signals, paving the way for new technologies that are compact and efficient.
The world of electronics has been shrinking and will continue to do so in the years to come. As chips become smaller, computations move from the realm of classical physics to that of quantum physics. Assumptions from classical physics do not work in this realm and to control these systems, scientists and engineers need to first understand how they work.
In the long term, these chips will be everywhere from medical devices to telecommunication systems, in our cars and as part of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Since factors like heat, vibration or electromagnetic noise impact quantum states, scientists needed a different solution to be able to control quantum-scale systems.
Why build an acoustic atom?
Scientists at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Department of Physics, and Center for Quantum Information Science and Engineering at Virigina Tech teamed up with those at ORNL to find a way to control quantum-scale systems.
Since acoustic waves or sound waves can be used to process and route signals in a sustainable way, the researchers decided to pursue this further. The built an acoustic atom, a chip-scale device that can trap and control sound waves.
“In nature, an atom has distinct energy levels that electrons can jump between,” said Linbo Shao, assistant professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech, in a press release.
“Our acoustic atom is a device with distinct energy levels for acoustic waves. Using electrical fields, we can drive transitions between these acoustic energy levels, mimicking real atoms.”
Building pathways for the future
The acoustic atom is a like a simulation of atomic-sized systems and lets researchers control their behavior. This helps them understand how signal processing works within quantum systems and how to control it for future applications.
According to the researchers, their device will help in the development of highly sensitive sensing technologies, interfaces for quantum hardware, and analog computing systems. Additionally, it will help build smaller components for microwave communications and improve signal routing and filtering.
Unlike electromagnetic waves, acoustic waves can be used over extremely small footprints while also retaining energy or information for much longer.
““Right now, we’re using classical, coherent microwave sources to drive the acoustic waves. There’s a long way to get this down to the single phonon level, but we’re optimistic that all those will happen soon,” added Shao in the press release.
“Ultimately, we hope this platform provides a new, highly compact way to process signals and perform analog acoustic computing directly on a chip.”
The research findings were published in the journal Physical Review Letters today.