Quantum computation of the electronic structure of some prototype solids

Over the last decade, researchers have been working to improve a crucial aspect of quantum computing to predict Hamiltonian energy of solids. Quantum algorithms such as Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE) and Variational Quantum Deflation (VQD) have been used to study the molecular systems. However, there is growing interest in adapting and applying these methods to periodic solid-state materials. In this work, we have integrated first-principles density functional theory with VQE and VQD algorithms and utilizing the Wannier Tight-Binding Hamiltonian (WTBH) method to predict the electronic characteristics of solids. We demonstrate that VQE and VQD algorithms can be used to accurately predict electronic characteristics in a variety of multi-component prototype solid-state materials such as - Silicon (semiconductor), Gold (metallic), Boron Nitrile (insulator), Graphene (semi-metal). Efficient SU2 performs well among all the predefined ansatz used in the study. COBYLA is the fastest optimizer among the classical optimizers with minimum number of iterations for convergence. Results of noise models help to understand the band structure when calculated on real quantum hardware. As quantum hardware advances, our method might be a starting point for using quantum computers to study materials and could help make material discovery more automatic in the future.