Characteristic of superior properties, topological qubits could help attain a breakthrough success in the development of quantum computer designed for universal use.
In fact, so far, no one has succeeded in unambiguously demonstrating a quantum bit also known as qubit of this kind in a laboratory.
In a recent development, scientists at Forscungszentrum Julich have now developed a way to make this a reality. In the first ever, scientists have succeeded to integrate a topological insulator into a conventional superconducting qubit.
Scientists could attain this just in time for World Quantum Day on April 14 for the novel qubit to make it to the cover of the latest edition of the journal Nano Letters.
Importantly, quantum computers are regarded as the computers of the coming age. With the help of quantum effects, qubits promise to provide solutions for highly complicated problems that conventional computers are unable to process in a realistic time limit.
However, the widespread use of such computers is still a long way. At present, current quantum computers generally do not contain a small number of qubits. The main problem is that they are highly subject to error. The bigger the system, the more challenging it is to isolate qubits from its environment.
Therefore, this pins hope on a new type of quantum bit called topological qubit. The approach is being adopted by several research groups as well as technology companies such as Microsoft.
Topological qubit demonstrates a special feature that it is topologically preserved, the particular geometric configuration of superconductors as well as their special electronic material properties ensure that quantum data is conserved.
Therefore, topological qubits are considered to be particularly solid and are largely resistant to external sources of decoherence.