(Yicai Global) May 14 -- Chinese researchers have developed large-scale optical quantum chips and successfully performed an important analog quantum computation demonstration, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. It is the world's largest optical quantum memory chip, said a group of Chinese scientists.

A research team led by Professor XianMin Jin from the department of physics and astronomy at Shanghai Jiao Tong University has produced an optical quantum chip with 49×49 nodes through "femtosecond laser direct writing" technology, showed a study published in the latest issue of the academic American journal Science Advances. It is the world's largest memory chip of its kind, said XianMin.

Using this chip, the researchers demonstrated an algorithmic kernel called "quantum random walk" that simulates quantum computation. When it is sufficiently large and its structure can be flexibly designed, this quantum evolution system can achieve a variety of algorithms and computational tasks, performing far better than traditional computers, XianMin explained.

Analog quantum computing differs from general-purpose quantum computing in that quantum systems can be built directly without the need to rely on complex quantum error correction as in general-purpose quantum computing, he added.

Once the quantum physics system that can be prepared and controlled reaches a new standard, it will be directly used to explore new physics and advance absolute computing power beyond conventional computers on specific issues.

Quantum Walk

"Quantum walks, in virtue of the coherent superposition and quantum interference, have exponential superiority over their classical counterpart in applications of quantum searching and quantum simulation," said the research team in the abstract of the academic paper. "We reveal the transient nature that is the unique feature for quantum walks of beyond one dimension," it added.

"An architecture that allows a quantum walk to freely evolve in all directions and at a large scale, combining with defect and disorder control, may bring up powerful and versatile quantum walk machines for classically intractable problems," it said.

Companies such as International Business Machines Corp., better known as IBM, Alphabet Inc.'s Google LLC, and Intel Corp. have been competing to announce achievements of higher levels of quantum bit numbers. However, general-purpose quantum computing is still difficult to achieve if dozens or more of the number of qubits cannot be fully interconnected; the accuracy is not enough; and the errors can hardly be corrected.

Editor: Mevlut Katik