‘Immunizing’ Quantum Bits Against Noise

(Phys.org) A new material, engineered by Purdue University researchers into a thin strip is one step closer to “immunizing” qubits against noise, such as heat and other parts of a computer, that interferes with how well they hold information.
“We have developed a material that is really clean, in the sense that there are no conducting states in the bulk of the topological insulator,” said Yong Chen, a Purdue professor of physics and astronomy and of electrical and computer engineering, and the director of the Purdue Quantum Science and Engineering Institute. “Superconductivity on the surface is the first step for building these topological quantum computing devices based on topological insulators.”