Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SQALE (Integrating Superconducting Qubits with Two-dimensional Electron Systems)
Reporting period: 2017-03-01 to 2019-02-28
Computers that use quantum superposition and entanglement are set to revolutionise how the world stores, processes, and communicates information. At the heart of quantum computers are building blocks known as qubits. Despite huge progress over the last decade, building a large number of interacting qubits still remains a major challenge. One emerging solution makes use of the semiconductor switch technology that is behind ordinary computer chips found in mobile phones and laptops. Proof-of-concept devices have proved extremely promising, but integrating these new materials in a scalable fashion needed to be established. In this project we addressed this by fabricating scalable hybrid circuits from these new materials and testing their performance.
I was able to readout the state of different types of qubits using microwave spectroscopy and demonstrate coherence times in the few μs range. Using the deeper direct knowledge of quantum control techniques and experience working directly with industrial partners I am now establishing a group to work in this area.
By developing a new type of qubit we progressed beyond state-of-the-art and helped the prospects for scaling superconducting quantum computing beyond a few hundred qubits. The transformative impact is hard to overstate due to the expectation from European governments, industry, and increasingly the public, to be able to harness the power of quantum computing for protecting secure communications and simulating small molecules within the next decade.