Simon Arnold embarks on his research exchange to UC Santa Barbara

IMPRS PhD student Simon Arnold will begin a three-month research exchange in March to establish and strengthen collaboration between the NISE department at the Max Planck Institute, led by Prof. Stuart Parkin, and the Orchestrating Physics for Unconventional Systems (OPUS) laboratory at the University of Santa Barbara in California, led by Prof. Kerem Camsari.

The initial seeds of this research cooperation were laid during the workshop Unlocking Quantum Frontiers at Ringberg Castle in 2024, and are now being made possible by a research grant for doctoral students from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). The DAAD's mission is to award scholarships and promote the internationalization of German universities and research institutes.

The research project between the Max Planck Institute in Halle and the University of Santa Barbara in California focuses on the investigation of hardware-based concepts for probabilistic computing in CMOS+X architectures. The applicability of novel stochastic nanodevices that further extend the capabilities of probabilistic bits (p-bits) will be investigated. One study is whether new discrete states can be added to the binary p-bit. This would allow expensive processes, such as sampling from a Gaussian distribution, to be performed in an energy-efficient manner. The experiments will be carried out in advanced probabilistic computing architectures using field programmable gate arrays. The underlying network architecture and energy-based algorithms will be developed to determine possible improvements in solvable problems, speed, and energy efficiency.

“The technical advantages of a possible collaboration as part of my PhD project are obvious: the OPUS laboratory is a pioneer in the field of probabilistic computing, with great experience and a great vision for possible future directions. Our institute, on the other hand, offers unique experimental facilities and extensive experience with magnetic thin-film materials and nanodevice fabrication. The synergy will enable the development of innovative hardware components for the use in co-designed computer architectures, which is a major part of my PhD,” explains Simon Arnold.

The research stay will be rounded up by attending the International Workshop on Ising Machines (IISM), a conference in Chicago in May, where he will present and discuss the main results of his research exchange.