World’s coldest alloy could shrink quantum computer cooling systems - Interesting Engineering
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From daily news and career tips to monthly insights on AI, sustainability, Aerospace, and more—pick what matters and get it in your inbox. Access expert insights, exclusive content, and a deeper dive into engineering and innovation. Engineering-inspired textiles, mugs, hats, and thoughtful gifts We connect top engineering talent with the world's most innovative companies. We empower professionals with advanced engineering and tech education to grow careers. We recognize outstanding achievements in engineering, innovation, and technology. Access expert insights, exclusive content, and a deeper dive into engineering and innovation. Engineering-inspired textiles, mugs, hats, and thoughtful gifts We connect top engineering talent with the world's most innovative companies We empower professionals with advanced engineering and tech education to grow careers. We recognize outstanding achievements in engineering, innovation, and technology. A new ‘mini fridge’ built with the alloy could reduce the reliance on massive helium-3-reliant quantum refrigerators. A team of scientists in China has discovered a new rare-earth alloy that is so cold and efficient it could drastically shake up the global race for quantum computing supremacy. To function properly, quantum processors must be kept at temperatures near absolute zero (around 10-15 millikelvin). Researchers currently rely on helium-3 for quantum computing cooling systems. Now, the new rare-earth alloy, called EuCo2Al9 (ECA), could end this decades-long reliance. Ultimately, this could lead to much smaller, more portable refrigerators for superconducting quantum computers. On January 27, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) issued an urgent call for proposals to develop a modular, helium-3-free cooling system for the next frontier of quantum and defense technologies. The following month, a collaborative team from the Institute of Theoretical Physics and the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science under CAS, together with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, effectively answered the call, a report from the South China Morning Post (SCMP) revealed.
The team built a mini-fridge using their alloy, and it has achieved temperatures extremely close to absolute zero.
The team describes their material as the world’s coldest alloy. Their fridge, which has no moving parts, is a “highly efficient cooling module [that] could offer a stable, portable cooling source for quantum chips and support major space exploration projects with a self-reliant refrigeration system,” the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) explained on its website. The alloy also “has the potential for mass production,” CAS noted, adding that the joint team had “successfully developed a pure metal refrigeration module based on this alloy material.” This “marks a ‘China solution’ that ends dependence on helium-3.” The team behind the fridge published their findings in a new paper in the journal Nature. The lowest possible temperature state is known as “absolute zero”. This is minus 273.15 degrees Celsius (minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit), or 0 Kelvin. To reach such low temperatures, scientists primarily rely on a technique known as dilution refrigeration. This process requires helium-3, a stable isotope of helium. According to their paper, the team leveraged a different solid-state cooling method known as adiabatic demagnetisation refrigeration (ADR). For this process, a magnetic alloy is placed in a low-temperature environment. A magnetic field is then applied, forcing the alloy’s internal microscopic magnets to perfectly align. This releases heat from the alloy. Finally, the alloy is isolated from the environment, and the magnetic field is removed. This causes the internal magnets to unalign. The process absorbs heat, lowering the material’s own temperature even further.
The team’s new material, EuCo2Al9 (ECA), has a thermal conductivity similar to that of metal. This allows it to efficiently channel cold outward. “ADR using ECA has achieved a minimum temperature of 106 millikelvin, setting a new record for metallic materials. Also, at such extreme temperatures, its thermal conductivity is one to two orders of magnitude higher than traditional magnetic refrigeration materials, overcoming the key bottleneck of inefficiently extracting the cooling power,” CAS explained. Dilution refrigerators are enormous machines that are costly to build and maintain. IBM’s Goldeneye, for example, is one of the world’s largest dilution refrigerators. It is estimated to have cost several million dollars. According to the team in China, their ECA refrigeration module has greater portability compared to the massive helium-3 dilution refrigerators traditionally used for quantum computing. Using the new alloy, the ADR method could completely alter the course of quantum computing by providing a smaller form factor for extreme cooling. Reducing the reliance on helium-3 could also have important geopolitical implications, as world powers are racing even to the moon to secure deposits of the rare isotope. Chris Young is a journalist, copywriter, blogger and tech geek at heart who’s reported on the likes of the Mobile World Congress, written for Lifehack, The Culture Trip, Flydoscope and some of the world’s biggest tech companies, including NEC and Thales, about robots, satellites and other world-changing innovations. Exclusive content, expert insights and a deeper dive into engineering and tech. No ads, no limits. Exclusive content, expert insights and a deeper dive into engineering and tech. No ads, no limits. The content we make available on this website [and through our other channels] (the “Service”) was created, developed, compiled, prepared, revised, selected, and/or arranged by us, using our own methods and judgment, and through the expenditure of substantial time and effort. This Service and the content we make available are proprietary, and are protected by these Terms of Service (which is a contract between us and you), copyright laws, and other intellectual property laws and treaties. This Service is also protected as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and treaties. We provide it for your personal, non-commercial use only. You may not use, and may not authorize any third party to use, this Service or any content we make available on this Service in any manner that (i) is a source of or substitute for the Service or the content; (ii) affects our ability to earn money in connection with the Service or the content; or (iii) competes with the Service we provide. These restrictions apply to any robot, spider, scraper, web crawler, or other automated means or any similar manual process, or any software used to access the Service. You further agree not to violate the restrictions in any robot exclusion headers of this Service, if any, or bypass or circumvent other measures employed to prevent or limit access to the Service by automated means.