降低量子计算机成本的秘密材料就在纸币油墨里

新华网10月31日电 据美国科技博客Gizmodo报道，通常你寻觅了许久的东西就在眼皮底下。最近找到的一种被看做量子计算机未来的物质，在纸币印刷上已经使用了几十年。

在《自然》杂志上发表的一篇文章表明，在5英镑纸币上使用的一种很普通的蓝色油墨可以被用作廉价的有机半导体，对于量子计算机来说非常理想。这种被称作铜酞菁的油墨中的电子可以保持在“叠加”状态，这是一种量子效应，每一个粒子都同时以两种状态存在。

其他原料也有类似的属性，但是只有铜酞菁产量巨大，而且可以被轻松地制作成薄膜，是制造设备的理想材料。这些薄膜对于产生量子位（量子版的二进位代码）是理想的，而量子位是量子计算机的基础。

研究人员表示，这种物质就像过去那些更稀有、更昂贵的分子一样吸引人，但是却更普通。而最有意思的是，在钱上找到的物质，却可以帮助科学家们省下不少钱。

译者：林杉

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Bank Note Ink Will Help Make Quantum Computers Cheaper

Every so often, the thing you\'ve been looking for all along is right under your nose. Like the latest material to offer itself up as the future of quantum computing—which has been sitting on banknotes for decades.

Research published in Nature suggests that a common blue pigment, which is used in the British ￡5 note, can be used as a low-cost organic semiconductor, ideal for use in quantum computing. The pigment, which is called copper phthalocyanine, has electrons that can remain in a state known as \'superposition\'—a quantum effect, where each particle exists in two states at once.

Other materials have that property, too, but crucially—and unlike others—copper phthalocyanine is abundant and can be easily processed into thin films, perfect for fabricating devices. Indeed, those films should be ideal for the production of qubits—the quantum version of binary bits—that power quantum computers.

The researchers point out that it seems just as attractive as rarer and more expensive molecules that have been suggested in the past, but is far more common. And there\'s a pleasant irony in the fact that a material found in money could actually save scientists some cash.