Google said Tuesday that it is entering the Colorado quantum realm in what seems like a very tiny way: It hired a quantum physicist in Boulder to speed up development of its first quantum computer.
But by adding University of Colorado and federal lab researcher Adam Kaufman, Google is taking a much bigger step in the industry. The company also announced Tuesday that it is expanding into a competing type of quantum computer development based on neutral atoms.
Kaufman, known for his work in controlling neutral atoms, “is one of the key experts in this area,” said Charina Chou, chief operating officer of Google Quantum AI, which has been working for more than a decade to build a quantum computer to tackle the world’s unsolvable problems. Such computers have accelerated computing performance that could lead to improvements to cancer and health treatments, AI accuracy and better tools to address climate change.
Google has long focused on developing quantum computers based on superconducting, which uses electronic circuits to mimic the behavior of atoms and requires near absolute-zero temperatures (and large cryogenic refrigerators). Advances in neutral-atoms technology, which doesn’t need the large refrigerators and uses actual atoms, however, led Google to invest in both types of technologies in hopes of building a quantum computer faster.
“Over the last two or three years, it became evident to us that there were some really interesting things happening in neutral-atom quantum computing in particular,” Chou said. “We’ve just been continuing to track the field and looking at the most promising places where we can collaborate or even bring people onto our team. And Adam definitely stands out as a really important expert in the field.”
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