Ultra-thin superconducting ink could be used in quantum computers

A superconducting ink that may be printed onto surfaces in a single-molecule-thick layer may show helpful for the constructing of circuits for quantum computer systems. The tungsten disulfide ink is extra steady than different superconducting inks and it’s less complicated to make, which bodes nicely for future functions.

When a cloth is superconductive, electrical energy can cross by way of it with zero resistance, making it a very environment friendly option to transmit vitality. Superconductive supplies even have particular magnetic properties, however they are usually troublesome to make they usually break down when uncovered to air or to temperatures too removed from absolute zero.

Xiaoyu Song and Leslie Schoop at Princeton University and their colleagues produced the tungsten disulfide ink utilizing a course of referred to as chemical exfoliation. They began out with a cloth product of alternating layers of tungsten disulfide and potassium. “Imagine that you have a crepe cake – you have all these crepes stacked on top of each other and in between you have the cream filling. The tungsten disulfide is the crepe and the potassium is the filling,” says Song. When the layered materials is positioned into diluted sulphuric acid, it’s just like dunking a crepe cake in water: the potassium dissolves away, and solely the skinny layers of tungsten disulfide stay.

When the acid and remnants of potassium had been rinsed away, the researchers had been left with skinny layers of tungsten suspended in water. This answer may then be printed onto a glass, plastic or silicon substrate, forming a layer of tungsten disulfide simply one molecule thick.

The printed sample remained steady at ambient circumstances, with no protecting container or coating, for at the very least 30 days. When it was frozen to temperatures beneath 7.3 kelvin (-266°C), even after being left within the open for some time, the ink grew to become superconductive. “You could carry it around or install it at room temperature, and then you just have to freeze it,” says Schoop. “You’d need liquid helium, though – you couldn’t do it in your home freezer, unfortunately.”

This course of is far less complicated than these which have been used for different superconducting inks, which have required protecting layers to maintain them from degrading over time. That may make it simpler to supply this ink industrially, though its temperature requirement blocks off some potential functions. “It could still be practical in things that are already cooled down, like in quantum computers or MRI machines where you already cool down your systems a lot,” says Schoop. In the longer term, the researchers hope that this methodology may very well be used to create inks which are superconductive at greater temperatures.