[HN Gopher] Electric cooling could shrink quantum computers
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Electric cooling could shrink quantum computers
        
       Author : mfiguiere
       Score  : 34 points
       Date   : 2023-09-12 20:03 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (spectrum.ieee.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (spectrum.ieee.org)
        
       | westurner wrote:
       | How does electric cooling compare to say optoelectronic laser
       | cooling in terms of cost and efficiency?
       | 
       | Laser cooling: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_cooling
        
         | throw1234651234 wrote:
         | Is any of this used in practice? I don't see a "(Practical)
         | Applications" section.
        
           | westurner wrote:
           | QC and Quantum Simulation:
           | 
           | /? laser cooling quantum simulation https://www.google.com/se
           | arch?q=Laser+cooling+quantum+simula...
           | 
           | From https://phys.org/news/2016-04-laser-cool-quantum-
           | liquid.amp :
           | 
           | > _In the experiments, the team created a superfluid helium
           | film on a silicon chip._
           | 
           | > _They then used a bright laser beam to draw energy out of
           | waves on the surface of the superfluid, cooling them._
           | 
           | > _In addition to laser cooling, the research team showed
           | that combining superfluid with microphotonics allows
           | extremely precise measurements of superfluid waves_
           | 
           | Additionally, FWIU there are now inexpensive integrated
           | lasers from which a laser cooling array could be built to
           | enclose a QC sim
        
         | petsfed wrote:
         | Based on the wikipedia article, macroscopic laser cooling is
         | largely used for cooling gases.
         | 
         | Insofar as I'm aware, laser cooling is always used as the final
         | stage of gas cooling, on top of more standard methods, because
         | there are more efficient methods to go from e.g. room
         | temperature to cryogenic temperatures, and cryogenic to near-
         | absolute-zero temperatures and so on. The method in the
         | article, as I understand it, is meant specifically to address
         | the cooling that's typically done with e.g. liquid nitrogen and
         | liquid helium, not necessarily what's done below Helium-4's
         | condensation temperature. The article is definitely too vague
         | to know if thermionic cooling addresses a Helium-3 stage or
         | not.
        
       | baz00 wrote:
       | Have they made them useful yet?
        
         | trwaw wrote:
         | [dead]
        
         | datameta wrote:
         | I think what is missing (and I'm stretching my understanding
         | here) is the right doping mixture and crystal structure to get
         | a high enough efficiency of emissions from the junctions.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2023-09-12 23:00 UTC)