Three new studies published today in the journal Nature show independent achievements of highly reliable and robust quantum computing.
A team from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) achieved a 1-qubit operation fidelity of up to 99.95 percent and a 2-qubit fidelity of 99.37 percent. Their approach used silicon embedded with phosphorus atoms via ion implantation, a method used in producing all existing silicon computer chips, allowing their quantum breakthrough to be "compatible with the broader semiconductor industry."
"When the errors are so rare, it becomes possible to detect them and correct them when they occur. This shows that it is possible to build quantum computers that have enough scale, and enough power, to handle meaningful computation," said Professor Andrea Morello of UNSW regarding their breakthrough.
A team from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands achieved 1-qubit and 2-qubit fidelities of 99.87 percent and 99.65 percent, respectively. A team from RIKEN in Japan achieved 1-qubit and 2-qubit fidelities of 99.84 percent and 99.51 percent, respectively. The 99 percent threshold is considered the barrier for building fault-tolerant computers and marks a significant breakthrough in quantum computing.
"You typically need error rates below 1 percent, to apply quantum error correction protocols. Having now achieved this goal, we can start designing silicon quantum processors that scale up and operate reliably for useful calculations," continued Morello.
You can read more from the three new studies here, here, and here.