Scientists have demonstrated a device that can interconnect as many as 100 qubits — the units of information future quantum computers will use to perform calculations that are impossible for conventional computers.

The 'quantum socket' — built by Matteo Mariantoni at the University of Waterloo in Canada and his collaborators — is a 3D arrangement of wires that link superconducting loops, each of which encodes a qubit. The device also enables individual qubits to be read and written on using microwave pulses. The team optimized the system to work at the extremely low temperatures required for superconductivity.

The researchers say that the design could be scaled up to as many as 100,000 qubits, enabling complex quantum computations.

Phys. Rev. Appl. 6, 044010 (2016)