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Microsoft Says It Has Created a New State of Matter to Power Quantum Computers
Microsoft’s new “topological qubit” is not based on a solid, liquid or gas. It is another phase of matter that many experts did not think was possible.
Anyone who has sat through a third-grade science class knows there are three primary states of matter: solid, liquid and gas.
Microsoft now says it has created a new state of matter in its quest to make a powerful machine, called a quantum computer, that could accelerate the development of everything from batteries to medicines to artificial intelligence.
On Wednesday, Microsoft’s scientists said they had built what is known as a “topological qubit” based on this new phase of physical existence, which could be harnessed to solve mathematical, scientific and technological problems.
With the development, Microsoft is raising the stakes in what is set to be the next big technological contest, beyond today’s race over artificial intelligence. Scientists have chased the dream of a quantum computer — a machine that could exploit the strange and exceedingly powerful behavior of subatomic particles or very cold objects — since the 1980s.
The push heated up in December when Google unveiled an experimental quantum computer that needed just five minutes to complete a calculation that most supercomputers could not finish in 10 septillion years — longer than the age of the known universe.
Microsoft’s quantum technology could leapfrog the methods under development at Google. As part of its research, the company built multiple topological qubits inside a new kind of computer chip that combines the strengths of the semiconductors that power classical computers with the superconductors that are typically used to build a quantum computer.
When such a chip is cooled to extremely low temperatures, it behaves in unusual and powerful ways that Microsoft believes will allow it to solve technological, mathematical and scientific problems that classical machines never could. The technology is not as volatile as other quantum technologies, the company said, making it easier to exploit its power.
Some question whether Microsoft has achieved this milestone, and many leading academics said quantum computers would not be fully realized for decades. But Microsoft’s scientists said their methods would help them reach the finish line sooner.
“We view this as something that is years away, not decades away,” said Chetan Nayak, a Microsoft technical fellow who led the team that built the technology.
What Microsoft has done: Microsoft has taken a step back and engineered a new material called ‘topoconductor,’ which is more stable, smaller in size, error-resistant, and can be digitally controlled. This new "architecture used to develop the Majorana 1 processor, offers a clear path to fit a million qubits on a single chip,” the company said in a blog.
The topoconductor was built with a new materials stack made of indium arsenide and aluminium. In contrast, most semiconductors are made of silicon.
Details: The tech giant says this could transform everything from fighting pollution to developing new medicines. It joins Google and IBM in arguing that the promise of quantum computing is closer to reality.
Source:https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/19/technology/microsoft-quantum-computing-topological-qubit.html
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