HEIFEI -- Chinese scientists have developed a programmable quantum computing prototype called "Jiuzhang 4.0" that has set a new world record for optical quantum information technology, according to a study published on Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Led by the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), the team used the prototype to solve the Gaussian boson sampling problem at a speed more than 10 to the 54th times that of the world's most powerful supercomputer, the study said.

The researchers said they manipulated and detected quantum states of up to 3,050 photons?— a significant leap from the 255 photons achieved with the previous "Jiuzhang 3.0."

Current mainstream quantum computing technological routes include superconducting, ion trap, photonic, and neutral atom systems. The "Jiuzhang" series of prototypes encodes quantum bits using photons and performs quantum computation through the manipulation and measurement of these photons.

Since its successful construction in 2020, the series has undergone several upgrades, achieving "quantum computational advantage" and repeatedly setting world records.

Lu Chaoyang, a professor at the USTC, said the research team developed a high-efficiency optical parametric oscillator light source and a spatiotemporally hybrid-coded interferometer.

By integrating 1,024 high-efficiency squeezed-state optical fields into an 8,176-mode spatiotemporally hybrid-coded circuit, the team was able to manipulate and detect up to 3,050 photons.

"This means that the most complex data sample generated by 'Jiuzhang 4.0' takes only 25 microseconds to produce?— shorter than the blink of an eye. In contrast, the world's most powerful supercomputer would require more than 10 to the 42nd years to calculate the same result," Lu said.

Lu noted that the results from "Jiuzhang 4.0" represent a major leap in the scale and complexity of low-loss photonic quantum processors, offering new possibilities for constructing "trillion-qubit-mode three-dimensional cluster states" and future "fault-tolerant optical quantum computing hardware."