https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Beginning in the 1950s, silicon transformed the electronics industry by enabling smaller and faster devices that could be reliably manufactured at scale. More than six decades later, silicon-based semiconductors remain at the heart of many modern technologies, including so-called "classical" computers. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-silicon-compatible-path-scalable-quantum.html Condensed Matter Tue, 14 Apr 2026 16:30:01 EDT news695401681 Quantum computers, systems that process information leveraging quantum mechanical effects, could outperform classical computers on some advanced tasks. These systems rely on qubits, the fundamental units of quantum information, that become linked via an effect known as quantum entanglement and share a unified quantum state. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-dual-rail-superconducting-qubits-generate.html Superconductivity Thu, 26 Mar 2026 08:10:01 EDT news693652193 In a major step toward practical quantum computers, Princeton engineers have built a superconducting qubit that lasts three times longer than today's best versions. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-superconducting-qubit-millisecond-primed-industrial.html Superconductivity Wed, 05 Nov 2025 11:00:30 EST news681554522 On July 8, 2025, physicists from Aalto University in Finland published a transmon qubit coherence measurement in Nature Communications that dramatically surpasses previous scientifically published records. The millisecond coherence measurement marks a quantum leap in computational technology, with the previous maximum echo coherence measurements approaching 0.6 milliseconds. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-quantum-transmon-qubit-coherence-millisecond.html Quantum Physics Tue, 08 Jul 2025 05:00:01 EDT news670757401 Recent technological advances have opened new exciting possibilities for the development of cutting-edge quantum devices, including quantum random access memory (QRAM) systems. These are memory architectures specifically meant to be integrated inside quantum computers, which can simultaneously retrieve data from multiple 'locations' leveraging a quantum effect known as coherent superposition. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-quantum-random-access-memory-based.html Quantum Physics Thu, 12 Jun 2025 10:19:23 EDT news668942346 Quantum computers, which operate leveraging quantum mechanics effects, could soon outperform traditional computers in some advanced optimization and simulation tasks. Most quantum computing systems developed so far store and process information using qubits (quantum units of information that can exist in a superposition of two states). https://phys.org/news/2025-02-approach-decoherence-superconducting-qudit-based.html Quantum Physics Fri, 28 Feb 2025 06:50:01 EST news659871755 Researchers from the RIKEN Center for Quantum Computing and Toshiba have succeeded in building a quantum computer gate based on a double-transmon coupler (DTC), which had been proposed theoretically as a device that could significantly enhance the fidelity of quantum gates. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-scientists-high-fidelity-quantum-gate.html Quantum Physics Fri, 22 Nov 2024 09:49:38 EST news651491375 A team of computer engineers from the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, NTT Corporation and Nagoya University have developed what they claim is the world's first superconducting flux qubit that can operate without the need for a surrounding magnetic field. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-superconducting-flux-qubit-magnetic-field.html Quantum Physics Thu, 17 Oct 2024 12:40:01 EDT news648387345 Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have shown that a type of qubit whose architecture is more amenable to mass production can perform comparably to qubits currently dominating the field. With a series of mathematical analyses, the scientists have provided a roadmap for simpler qubit fabrication that enables robust and reliable manufacturing of these quantum computer building blocks. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-qubit-architecture-enable-easier-quantum.html Quantum Physics Wed, 18 Sep 2024 12:02:04 EDT news645879721 Seeking a method for reducing error in noisy quantum systems, Kajsa Williams and Louis-S. Bouchard, researchers at the Center for Quantum Science and Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles, implemented and evaluated single-qubit gates performance using specially designed composite and adiabatic pulses. While they found no particular advantages in terms of leakage and seepage of the gates compared to standard gates, robustness to control field error was greatly improved. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-pulses-quantum.html Quantum Physics Tue, 09 Apr 2024 11:04:04 EDT news631879442 Quantum technology could outperform conventional computers on some advanced optimization and computational tasks. In recent years, physicists have been working to identify new strategies to create quantum systems and promising qubits (i.e., basic units of information in quantum computers). https://phys.org/news/2024-02-flowermon-superconducting-qubit-based-cuprate.html Superconductivity Mon, 12 Feb 2024 10:41:31 EST news626956886 Quantum computers can solve certain computational problems much faster than ordinary computers by using specific quantum properties. The basic building blocks of such machines are called quantum-bits or qubits. Qubits can be realized using several physical platforms such as nuclear spins, trapped ions, cold atoms, photons, and using superconducting Josephson circuits. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-scalable-user-friendly-platform-physicists-advanced.html Quantum Physics Wed, 13 Sep 2023 13:15:44 EDT news613829681 Germany's first cryogenic measuring setup for statistical quality measurement of qubit devices on whole 200- and 300-mm wafers has started operation at Fraunhofer IAF. The on-wafer prober can characterize devices based on semiconductor quantum dots and quantum wells as well as superconductors at measurement temperatures below 2 K. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-cryogenic-on-wafer-prober-quality-qubit.html Condensed Matter Thu, 31 Aug 2023 14:41:03 EDT news612711661 Researchers from the Department of Physics at Universität Hamburg, observed a quantum state that was theoretically predicted more than 50 years ago by Japanese theoreticians but so far eluded detection. By tailoring an artificial atom on the surface of a superconductor, the researchers succeeded in pairing the electrons of the so-called quantum dot, thereby inducing the smallest possible version of a superconductor. The work appears in the journal Nature. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-pairing-electrons-artificial-atoms-quantum.html Superconductivity Thu, 17 Aug 2023 11:13:27 EDT news611489602 Physicists at the University of Regensburg (UR) led by the research groups of Professor Dr. Christoph Strunk / Dr. Nicola Paradiso and Professor Dr. Jaroslav Fabian made an exciting discovery: In their publication just published in Nature Nanotechnology, the research teams experimentally demonstrate a dramatic sign change of the supercurrent diode effect. The corresponding experimental data are in quantitative agreement with the theory of Dr. Andreas Costa, also a physicist at the University of Regensburg. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-physicists-reversal-josephson-diode-effect.html Superconductivity Mon, 10 Jul 2023 13:04:36 EDT news608213072 An interdisciplinary team at the Advanced Quantum Testbed (AQT) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California, Berkeley's Quantum Nanoelectronics Laboratory (QNL) achieved a technical breakthrough using qutrits—three-level systems—on a superconducting quantum processor. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-ternary-quantum-success-generating-two-qutrit.html Quantum Physics Thu, 06 Jul 2023 12:40:01 EDT news607786799 A team of researchers at Microsoft Quantum has reportedly achieved a first milestone toward creating a reliable and practical quantum computer. In their paper, published in the journal Physical Review B, the group describes the milestone and their plans to build a reliable quantum computer over the next 25 years. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-microsoft-milestone-reliable-quantum.html Quantum Physics Sat, 24 Jun 2023 03:12:13 EDT news606729573 The next generation of quantum devices requires high-coherence qubits that are less error-prone. Responding to this need, researchers at the AQT at Berkeley Lab, a state-of-the-art collaborative research laboratory, developed a blueprint for a novel quantum processor based on "fluxonium" qubits. Fluxonium qubits can outperform the most widely used superconducting qubits, offering a promising path toward fault-tolerant universal quantum computing. https://phys.org/news/2023-04-quantum-fluxonium-processors.html Superconductivity Tue, 11 Apr 2023 09:40:53 EDT news600424849 Just as the sound of a guitar depends on its strings and the materials used for its body, the performance of a quantum computer depends on the composition of its building blocks. Arguably the most critical components are the devices that encode information in quantum computers. https://phys.org/news/2023-01-silicides-impact-transmon-qubits.html Condensed Matter Fri, 27 Jan 2023 09:59:04 EST news594035942 We see the world around us because light is being absorbed by specialized cells in our retina. But can vision happen without any absorption at all—without even a single particle of light? Surprisingly, the answer is yes. https://phys.org/news/2022-12-quantum-mechanics.html Quantum Physics Wed, 21 Dec 2022 16:34:05 EST news590862841 Researchers at Toshiba Corporation have achieved a breakthrough in quantum computer architecture: the basic design for a double-transmon coupler that will improve the speed and accuracy of quantum computation in tunable couplers. The coupler is a key device in determining the performance of superconducting quantum computers. https://phys.org/news/2022-09-double-transmon-coupler-faster-accurate-superconducting.html Quantum Physics Thu, 15 Sep 2022 15:51:02 EDT news582475858 A research partnership at the Advanced Quantum Testbed (AQT) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Chicago-based Super.tech (acquired by ColdQuanta in May 2022) demonstrated how to optimize the execution of the ZZ SWAP network protocol, important to quantum computing. The team also introduced a new technique for quantum error mitigation that will improve the network protocol's implementation in quantum processors. The experimental data was published this July in Physical Review Research, adding more pathways in the near term to implement quantum algorithms using gate-based quantum computing. https://phys.org/news/2022-08-optimizing-swap-networks-quantum.html General Physics Thu, 04 Aug 2022 11:00:13 EDT news578650874 Quantum computers, devices that exploit quantum phenomena to perform computations, could eventually help tackle complex computational problems faster and more efficiently than classical computers. These devices are commonly based on basic units of information known as quantum bits, or qubits. https://phys.org/news/2022-07-alternative-superconducting-qubit-high-quantum.html Superconductivity Wed, 27 Jul 2022 09:24:38 EDT news578132673 Research conducted within the Cluster of Excellence "Matter and Light for Quantum Computing" (ML4Q) has analyzed cutting-edge device structures of quantum computers to demonstrate that some of them are indeed operating dangerously close to a threshold of chaotic meltdown. The challenge is to walk a thin line between too high, but also too low disorder to safeguard device operation. The study has been published today in Nature Communications. https://phys.org/news/2022-05-quantum-combination-disorder.html Quantum Physics Fri, 06 May 2022 11:56:10 EDT news571056966 In a new report now published in Science Advances, Peter A. Spring and a team of scientists in physics at the Oxford University described qubit coherence and low cross-talk and single-qubit gate errors in superconducting qubit architecture, suited for two-dimensional (2D) lattices of qubits. The experimental setup involved an inductively shunted cavity enclosure with non-galvanic, out-of-plane control wiring, qubits and resonators fabricated on opposing sides of a substrate. The scientists developed a proof-of-concept device featuring four uncoupled transmon qubits, i.e., a superconducting charged qubit with reduced sensitivity to charge noise, to exhibit specific features measured via simultaneous randomized benchmarking. The three-dimensional integrated nature of the control wiring allowed the qubit to remain addressable as the architecture formed larger qubit lattices. https://phys.org/news/2022-04-high-coherence-cross-talk-superconducting-qubit.html Superconductivity Fri, 29 Apr 2022 09:30:01 EDT news570441930 For quantum computers to surpass their classical counterparts in speed and capacity, their qubits—which are superconducting circuits that can exist in an infinite combination of binary states—need to be on the same wavelength. Achieving this, however, has come at the cost of size. Whereas the transistors used in classical computers have been shrunk down to nanometer scales, superconducting qubits these days are still measured in millimeters—one millimeter is one million nanometers. https://phys.org/news/2021-11-qubits-quantum-atom-thin-materials.html Nanophysics Tue, 30 Nov 2021 15:50:25 EST news557509822 The connection between microscopic material properties and qubit coherence are not well understood despite practical evidence that material imperfections present an obstacle to applications of superconducting qubits. In a new report now published on Communications Materials, Anjali Premkumar and a team of scientists in electrical engineering, nanomaterials, physics and angstrom engineering at Princeton University and in Ontario, Canada, combined measurements of transmon qubit relaxation (T1) times with spectroscopy, alongside microscopy of polycrystalline niobium (Nb) films used during qubit development. Based on films deposited via three different techniques, the team revealed correlations between transmon qubit relaxation times and intrinsic film properties, including grain size to enhance oxygen diffusion along grain boundaries, while also increasing the concentration of suboxides near the surface. The residual resistance ratio of the polycrystalline niobium films can be used as a figure of merit to understand qubit lifetimes, and the new approach charts a path for materials-driven improvements of superconducting qubit performance. https://phys.org/news/2021-09-materials-superconducting-qubits.html Condensed Matter Thu, 02 Sep 2021 10:00:02 EDT news549784120 Russian scientists have experimentally proved the existence of a new type of quasiparticle—previously unknown excitations of coupled pairs of photons in qubit chains. This discovery could be a step towards disorder-robust quantum metamaterials. The study was published in Physical Review B. https://phys.org/news/2021-06-quasiparticle.html Quantum Physics Tue, 29 Jun 2021 12:03:40 EDT news544187016 Scientists believe that individual light particles, or photons, are ideally suited for sending quantum information. Encoded with quantum data, they could literally transfer information at the speed of light. However, while photons would make for great carriers because of their speed, they don't like to interact with each other, making it difficult to achieve quantum entanglement. https://phys.org/news/2021-05-scientists-photons-interact-long-living-quantum.html Quantum Physics Tue, 18 May 2021 07:30:09 EDT news540541805 The secret to building superconducting quantum computers with massive processing power may be an ordinary telecommunications technology—optical fiber. https://phys.org/news/2021-03-optical-fiber-boost-power-superconducting.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 24 Mar 2021 12:00:09 EDT news535792129