'Would I bet my life?' Microsoft announces topological qubit

Quantum Campus shares the latest in quantum science and technology from university campuses. We publish on Fridays and are always looking for news from researchers across the country. Want to see your work featured? Submit your ideas to the editor.

Majorana 1

Microsoft announced Wednesday the development of a topological quantum chip capable of controlling Majorana fermions. The company expects that the platform will allow for the development of “quantum computers capable of solving meaningful, industrial-scale problems in years, not decades.”

Intermediate results showed a delocalized electron that can be indicative of a pair of Majorana particles without necessarily guaranteeing the existence of the particles themselves. They were published in Nature. 

A news story on the findings also ran in Nature, which included reactions from outside researchers who were given access to additional findings from Microsoft. One of them, Oxford physicist Steven Simon, said “Would I bet my life that they’re seeing what they think they’re seeing? No, but it looks pretty good…There’s no slam dunk to know immediately from the experiment.”

Another, Travis Humble of Oak Ridge National Lab, told MIT Technology Review “I find it very encouraging. It is not yet enough to claim that they have created topological qubits. There’s still more work to be done there [but] this is a good first step.”

Magnetic switching in excitons

A team led by the University of Michigan and Germany’s University of Regensburg showed that chromium sulfide bromide supports magnetic switching of excitons. Their experiment hit chromium sulfide bromide with extremely brief pulses of infrared light. They then used another infrared laser with less energetic pulses to nudge the excitons into slightly higher energy states.

They revealed highly direction-dependent excitons, which could be confined to a single dimension or expanded in three dimensions, switchable through external magnetic fields or temperature changes.

“The magnetic order is a new tuning knob for shaping excitons and their interactions. This could be a game changer for future electronics and information technology,” said Regensburg’s Rupert Huber in an announcement.

This work was published in Nature Materials.

Microwave readout resonators

EeroQ, a quantum hardware company with deep connections to Michigan State University, announced the design of microwave readout resonators engineered for silicon-based single-electron trapping systems. The readout resonators are based on titanium nitride and its kinetic inductance, which the team expects will substantially boost electron measurement speed.

The design was published in Physical Review Applied.

International Year of Quantum

The American Physical Society covered the launch of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology in Paris last week, including talks by Nobel Laureates Anne L’Huillier, Bill Phillips, and Alain Aspect.

Read APS’s story or watch the opening ceremony below.

Quickbits

• Analyst says IBM’s Heron chip is ‘far leading the field’ in terms of circuit-depth support (EE Times)

• Nanjing University publishes shortcuts to adiabatic non-Abelian braiding on silicon photonic chips (Science)

• ‘Technology that feels like it’s always five years away may suddenly be two years away’ (Wall Street Journal)

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