{"id":13501,"date":"2025-02-25T07:55:32","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T12:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/?p=13501"},"modified":"2025-02-25T08:19:36","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T13:19:36","slug":"materials-developed-at-purdue-university-incorporated-into-new-microsoft-quantum-qubit-platform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/Q1\/materials-developed-at-purdue-university-incorporated-into-new-microsoft-quantum-qubit-platform","title":{"rendered":"Materials developed at Purdue University incorporated into new Microsoft Quantum qubit platform"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. \u2014 Microsoft Quantum published an article in Nature<\/a> on Feb. 19 detailing recent advances in the measurement of quantum devices that will be needed to realize a topological quantum computer. Among the authors are Microsoft scientists and engineers who conduct research at Microsoft Quantum Lab West Lafayette, located at Purdue University. In an announcement by Microsoft Quantum<\/a>, the team describes the operation of a device that is a necessary building block for a topological quantum computer. The published results are an important milestone along the path to construction of quantum computers that are potentially more robust and powerful than existing technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur hope for quantum computation is that it will aid chemists, materials scientists and engineers working on the design and manufacturing of new materials that are so important to our daily lives,\u201d said Michael Manfra<\/a>, scientific director of Microsoft Quantum Lab West Lafayette and the Bill and Dee O\u2019Brien Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy, professor of materials engineering, and professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue. \u201cThe promise of quantum computation is in accelerating scientific discovery and its translation into useful technology. For example, if quantum computers reduce the time and cost to produce new lifesaving therapeutic drugs, that is real societal impact.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Microsoft Quantum Lab West Lafayette team advanced the complex layered materials that make up the quantum plane of the full device architecture used in the tests. Microsoft scientists working with Manfra are experts in advanced semiconductor growth techniques, including molecular beam epitaxy, that are used to build low-dimensional electron systems that form the basis for quantum bits, or qubits. They built the semiconductor and superconductor layers with atomic layer precision, tailoring the material’s properties to those needed for the device architecture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manfra, a member of the Purdue Quantum Science and Engineering Institute<\/a>, credited the strong relationship between Purdue and Microsoft, built over the course of a decade, with the advances conducted at Microsoft Quantum Lab West Lafayette. In 2017 Purdue deepened its relationship with Microsoft with a multiyear agreement that includes embedding Microsoft employees with Manfra\u2019s research team at Purdue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was a collaborative effort by a very sophisticated team, with a vital contribution from the Microsoft scientists at Purdue,\u201d Manfra said. \u201cIt\u2019s a Microsoft team achievement, but it\u2019s also the culmination of a long-standing partnership between Purdue and Microsoft. It wouldn\u2019t have been possible without an environment at Purdue that was conducive to this mode of work \u2014 I attempted to blend industrial with academic research to the betterment of both communities. I think that\u2019s a success story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quantum science and engineering at Purdue is a pillar of the Purdue Computes<\/a> initiative, which is focused on advancing research in computing, physical AI, semiconductors and quantum technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis research breakthrough in the measurement of the state of quasi particles is a milestone in the development of topological quantum computing, and creates a watershed moment in the semiconductor-superconductor hybrid structure,\u201d Purdue President Mung Chiang said.\u00a0\u201cMarking also the latest success in the strategic initiative of Purdue Computes, the deep collaboration that Professor Manfra and his team have created with the Microsoft Quantum Lab West Lafayette on the Purdue campus exemplifies the most impactful industry research partnership at any American university today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most approaches to quantum computers rely on local degrees of freedom to encode information. The spin of an electron is a classic example of a qubit. But an individual spin is prone to disturbance \u2014 by relatively common things like heat, vibrations or interactions with other quantum particles \u2014 which can corrupt quantum information stored in the qubit, necessitating a great deal of effort in detecting and correcting errors. Instead of spin, topological quantum computers store information in a more distributed manner; the qubit state is encoded in the state of many particles acting in concert. Consequently, it is harder to scramble the information as the state of all the particles must be changed to alter the qubit state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Nature paper, the Microsoft team was able to accurately and quickly measure the state of quasi particles that form the basis of the qubit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe device is used to measure a basic property of a topological qubit quickly,\u201d Manfra said. \u201cThe team is excited to build on these positive results.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe team in West Lafayette pushed existing epitaxial technology to a new state-of-the-art for semiconductor-superconductor hybrid structures to ensure a perfect interface between each of the building blocks of the Microsoft hybrid system,\u201d said Sergei Gronin, a Microsoft Quantum Lab scientist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe materials quality that is required for quantum computing chips necessitates constant improvements, so that\u2019s one of the biggest challenges,\u201d Gronin said. \u201cFirst, we had to adjust and improve semiconductor technology to meet a new level that nobody was able to achieve before. But equally important was how to create this hybrid system. To do that, we had to merge a semiconducting part and a superconducting part. And that means you need to perfect the semiconductor and the superconductor and perfect the interface between them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While work discussed in the Nature article was performed by Microsoft employees, the exposure to industrial-scale research and development is an outstanding opportunity for Purdue students in Manfra\u2019s academic group as well. John Watson, Geoffrey Gardner and Saeed Fallahi, who are among the coauthors of the paper, earned their doctoral degrees under Manfra and now work for Microsoft Quantum at locations in Redmond, Washington, and Copenhagen, Denmark. Most of Manfra\u2019s former students now work for quantum computing companies, including Microsoft. Tyler Lindemann, who works in the West Lafayette lab and helped to build the hybrid semiconductor-superconductor structures required for the device, is earning a doctoral degree from Purdue under Manfra\u2019s supervision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWorking in Professor Manfra\u2019s lab in conjunction with my work for Microsoft Quantum has given me a head start in my professional development, and been fruitful for my academic work,\u201d Lindemann said. \u201cAt the same time, many of the world-class scientists and engineers at Microsoft Quantum have some background in academia, and being able to draw from their knowledge and experience is an indispensable resource in my graduate studies. From both perspectives, it\u2019s a great opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About Purdue University<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Purdue University is a public research university leading with excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities in the United States, Purdue discovers, disseminates and deploys knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 107,000 students study at Purdue across multiple campuses, locations and modalities, including more than 58,000 at our main campus in West Lafayette and Indianapolis. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue\u2019s main campus has frozen tuition 13 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap \u2014 including its comprehensive urban expansion, the Mitch Daniels School of Business, Purdue Computes and the One Health initiative \u2014 at https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/president\/strategic-initiatives<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. \u2014 Microsoft Quantum published an article in Nature on Feb. 19 detailing recent advances in the measurement of quantum devices that will be needed to realize a topological quantum computer. Among the authors are Microsoft scientists and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":13506,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[],"department":[],"source":[29],"purdue_today_topic":[],"coauthors":[127],"class_list":["post-13501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-purdue-computes","source-purdue-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13501"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13559,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13501\/revisions\/13559"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13501"},{"taxonomy":"department","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/department?post=13501"},{"taxonomy":"source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/source?post=13501"},{"taxonomy":"purdue_today_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/purdue_today_topic?post=13501"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=13501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}