Utility of NISQ devices: optimizing experimental parameters for the fabrication of Au atomic junction using gate-based quantum computers

TL;DR

This paper explores using gate-based NISQ quantum computers to autonomously optimize parameters for fabricating gold atomic junctions, showing they outperform quantum annealers in solution quality.

Contribution

It demonstrates the feasibility of employing NISQ devices for complex experimental parameter optimization in atomic junction fabrication.

Findings

NISQ devices achieved lower residual energies than quantum annealers.

NISQ devices produced higher-quality solutions for large-scale problems.

Autonomous fabrication of Au atomic junctions via quantum computing is feasible.

Abstract

Feedback-controlled electromigration (FCE) enables precise regulation of atomic migration by carefully optimizing multiple experimental parameters. However, manually fine-tuning these parameters poses significant challenges. This study investigated the feasibility of autonomously fabricating Au atomic junctions through gate-based quantum computing using a noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) device, which effectively approximates solutions to combinatorial optimization problems. We compared the computational accuracy of the NISQ device against a previously reported D-Wave quantum annealer. The results indicate that the NISQ device achieved lower residual energies and produced higher-quality approximate solutions for large-scale problems than the quantum annealing system.