Over the history of quantum computing, the coherence time of superconducting qubits – that is, the time during which they retain their quantum information – has improved drastically. One major improvement comes from placing superconducting qubits inside three-dimensional microwave resonator cavities, which preserve the qubit’s state by encoding it in photons stored in the cavity.
In a recent study, researchers from Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science pushed the boundaries of this method by demonstrating a novel three-dimensional cavity qubit setup with a single-photon coherence time of 34 milliseconds (ms). Long coherence time is key to achieving low-error qubit operations (thereby reducing the hardware required in fault tolerance), and the new coherence time shatters the previous record by more than an order of magnitude.
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