MIT Creates Diode That Cuts Energy Use In Computing

MIT scientists and colleagues have created a simple superconducting device that could transfer current through electronic devices much more efficiently than is possible today, Elizabeth A. Thomson reported for Phys.org.

Photo Insert: The superconducting diode is more than twice as efficient as similar ones and could be integral to emerging quantum computing technologies.

As a result, the new diode, a kind of switch, could dramatically cut the amount of energy used in high-power computing systems. The diode is more than twice as efficient as similar ones and could be integral to emerging quantum computing technologies.

The work, which is reported in Physical Review Letters, is also the subject of a news story in Physics Magazine.

"This paper showcases that the superconducting diode is an entirely solved problem from an engineering perspective," says Philip Moll, Director of the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter in Germany.

"Our engineering of a superconducting diode effect that is robust and can operate over a wide temperature range in simple systems and potentially opening the door for novel technologies," says Jagadeesh Moodera, team leader and a senior research scientist in MIT's Department of Physics.

Moodera is also affiliated with the Materials Research Laboratory, the Francis Bitter Magnet Laboratory, and the Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC). The nanoscopic rectangular diode—about 1,000 times thinner than the diameter of a human hair—is easily scalable.

Millions can be produced on a single silicon wafer.

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