At least in Quantum computers
Boffins
working on bismuth telluride have discovered that it has new new properties
that paves the way for chips for quantum computers.
Writing in Science
Express, boffins from SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford
University said that they have created a new form of bismuth telluride that
allows electrons on the surface of the
material to act like photons.
This
means that they can travel with no loss of energy, and maintain specific
spins for an indefinite period of time. One of the boffins Yulin Chen said
that the properties allow us to make low-energy spintronic devices that
could be a successor to silicon.
Spintronic devices are like the PR managers
of the chip world. They use the spin, rather than the charge, of materials
to store information. This is the basis quantum computing, which is a
technology which has mostly only been theorised about. But with material
that can do the job better than silicon it is one step closer to happening.