US team develops world’s fastest quantum switch to supercharge AI by 1 million times
The speed of modern processors has long hit a ceiling. While software in fields like AI and supercomputing advances rapidly, hardware struggles to keep pace.
Traditional silicon-based transistors can only switch so fast, limited by the physical materials and electrical resistance on which they rely. But a new breakthrough may change that entirely by ditching electrons for light.
In a major leap toward ultrafast computing, a team of researchers from the University of Arizona and international collaborators have developed a light-powered transistor using graphene.
Their experiment shows electrons in the material can be controlled using laser pulses lasting just attoseconds — one quintillionth of a second.
The result: processing speeds in the petahertz range, or over a million times faster than today’s chips.
Quantum tunneling at trillionth-of-a-second speed
The study demonstrates how laser light interacts with modified graphene to generate near-instant electronic motion.
By leveraging a quantum phenomenon known as tunneling, researchers observed electrons bypassing physical barriers without any delay.
Graphene’s symmetrical atomic structure usually cancels out these electric currents. But when the team introduced a special silicon layer and hit the material with a precisely timed laser, a single electron tunneled through and could be tracked in real time.
Mohammed Hassan, an associate professor of physics and optical sciences, said this kind of surprise result is what makes science exciting.
“Going into the lab, you always anticipate what will happen – but the real beauty of science are the little things that happen, which lead you to investigate more,” he said. “Once we realized that we had achieved this tunneling effect, we had to find out more.”
The world’s fastest quantum transistor
To capture and control this effect, the team used a commercially available graphene phototransistor, which they modified by adding a silicon layer. A laser switching at a rate of 638 attoseconds enabled the transistor to operate at petahertz speeds, making it the fastest ever built.
A transistor acts as an electronic switch or amplifier. It’s the backbone of all digital electronics. This new version, driven by light rather than voltage, opens up an entirely new frontier.
Hassan called it “the world’s fastest petahertz quantum transistor.”
He emphasized the importance of hardware catching up to software: “We have experienced a huge leap forward in the development of technologies like artificial intelligence software, but the speed of hardware development does not move as quickly. But, by leaning on the discovery of quantum computers, we can develop hardware that matches the current revolution in information technology software.”
Path to commercialization already underway
Unlike many lab-only experiments, this transistor worked in normal room conditions. That drastically improves its chances of being integrated into commercial electronics. Hassan and his colleagues are working with Tech Launch Arizona to patent and commercialize the technology.
“I hope we can collaborate with industry partners to realize this petahertz-speed transistor on a microchip,” Hassan said. “The University of Arizona is already known for the world’s fastest electron microscope, and we would like to also be known for the first petahertz-speed transistor.”
Source: Interesting Engineering
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US team develops world’s fastest quantum switch to supercharge AI by 1 million times