As US-China tech war heats up, scientists find new material to cool quantum computers

Helium is used as a coolant for research and applications that need extreme cold, but it’s in short supply

International team says ‘supersolid’ material has potential for achieving the ultra-low temperatures needed

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Most quantum machines – from computers to satellites – use basic units of information called qubits that must be kept at extremely cold temperatures. Photo: Shutterstock Images

Published: 11:00am, 24 Jan 2024

A Chinese-led team of scientists say they have found a new material that could be used to create the ultra-low temperatures needed for hi-tech applications such as quantum computing.

It could be a significant development for China, which depends on imports of helium – the coolant used for this purpose – from countries including the United States.

As their tech war heats up, China also faces the threat of the US restricting access to the dilution refrigerators needed to create an ultra-cold environment, which a researcher involved in the study says are already hard to obtain.

Liquid helium – through cryogenic technology – has been used as a coolant for nearly a century in research and applications that require extreme cold, from medical equipment to deep space exploration.

But helium is a scarce resource, and demand is growing for its use in hi-tech industries. That is especially true for helium-3, a rare isotope that is more effective as a coolant in extreme conditions and mainly comes from ageing nuclear warheads.

Driven by the need to find an alternative to the helium-based cooling system, the international team – led by researchers at a Chinese Academy of Sciences laboratory in Beijing – went looking for a solid material that could achieve big energy changes by changing its state.

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