Two breakthrough papers - Congratulations Rogério!

Current quantum computers are limited by energy absorption by material’s defects present at rough surfaces and interfaces, and a great deal of effort is underway to increase material quality for quantum computing devices. This begs the question: What would be the ultimate source of energy absorption in defect-free materials made of perfectly crystalline surfaces and interfaces? Two researchers from CAMTEC answered this question in their recent publication in the high profile journal Physical Review Letters. They claim that even perfect surfaces and interfaces are intrinsically piezoelectric, i.e. they convert electric energy into mechanical vibrations. This process leads to the destruction of the computer’s quantum state as its energy dissipates into heat emitted as atomic vibrations. Fortunately, this ultimate absorption mechanism leads to quantum coherence times that are at least 100X larger than the current state of the art, showing that material improvements can go a long way into improving the quality of quantum computing devices.

Intrinsic Photon Loss at the Interface of Superconducting Devices I. Diniz and R. de Sousa, Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 147702 (2020).

Probing two-level systems with electron spin inversion recovery of defects at the Si/SiO2 interface M. Belli, M. Fanciulli, and R. de Sousa, Phys. Rev. Research 2, 033507 (2020).