Microsoft advances quantum computing vision and helps tackle real-world challenges 

5 min read

This week marks one year since Microsoft announced our bold vision of developing a scalable, full stack quantum computing solution. During that period, we have delivered against our vision and achievement, including expanding our quantum investments across the globe and making our quantum research and technology accessible to a growing community of quantum developers. Read more

Atom by atom: Fabricating materials for a quantum computer 

3 min read

Topological qubits will be one of the key ingredients in the Microsoft plan to bring a powerful, scalable quantum computing solution to the world. Providing increased resistance to outside interference, topological qubits create a more stable foundation than conventional qubits. This increased stability allows the quantum computer to perform computations that can uncover solutions to Read more

APS Physical Review Letters selects Station Q paper 

1 min read

  We are pleased to announce that the American Physical Society (APS) journal, Physical Review Letters, has selected the Station Q paper, Transport Signatures of Quasiparticle Poisoning in a Majorana Island, as an Editors’ Suggestion. The paper details how, working with theorists in Copenhagen, we found a way to measure the quasiparticle poisoning rate of a Majorana Read more

Transport signatures of quasiparticle poisoning in a Majorana island 

1 min read

As its name implies, the poisoning of Majorana devices by normal electrons is fatal to topological computation, so much effort is now focused on characterizing the degree of poisoning either by the creation of quasiparticle pairs within the device, or by electrons entering the device through the leads. A recent experiment (see https://arxiv.org/abs/1612.05748), led by Sven Read more

Normal, superconducting and topological regimes of hybrid double quantum dots 

<1 min read

  Majorana devices will generally be much more complicated than the single-junction or single quantum dot Majorana devices that have been realized in the literature so far. (See https://arxiv.org/abs/1610.05289 by the Station Q team for examples of complex devices.) Recently, a first step toward complex multi-gated Majorana devices—a Majorana double quantum wire—was realized by Daniel Sherman and Read more

Anomalous Fraunhofer Interference in Epitaxial Superconductor-Semiconductor Josephson Junctions 

1 min read

  Last year saw a materials breakthrough, with the realization of a two-dimensional heterostructure combining superconductor and semiconductor layers. (See journals.aps.org/prb/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevB.93.15540.) Now, as shown in a recent report, this material has been used to study interference effects controlled by magnetic fields in a Josephson junction made from this material. Anomalous interference reveals properties of the semiconductor in Read more

Conductance of a proximitized nanowire in the Coulomb blockade regime 

<1 min read

  In this paper, which was just published in Physical Review B, a quantitative theory for the two-terminal conductance of a proximitized nanowire in the Coulomb blockade regime is developed. This theory allows one to understand and interpret the experimental data from the recent experiment by Charles Marcus’s group at Station Q Copenhagen that demonstrated Read more

Exponential protection of zero modes in Majorana islands 

<1 min read

Quantum information theory has the potential to revolutionize computation, cryptography, and simulation of quantum systems. However, quantum states are fragile, and unwanted interactions with the environment destroy the information before it can be manipulated successfully. Now, a breakthrough experiment by researchers affiliated with Station Q Copenhagen has demonstrated a key property of Majorana zero modes Read more