How 'clean' does a quantum computing test facility need to be?

Now is the time to banish low-level radioactive energy sources from facilities that house and conduct experiments with superconducting qubits, according to a pair of recently published studies. Significantly improving quantum device coherence times is a key step toward an era of practical quantum computing.

Two complementary articles, published in the journals PRX Quantum and the Journal of Instrumentation, outline which sources of interfering ionizing radiation are most problematic for superconducting quantum computers and how to address them. The findings set the stage for quantitative study of errors caused by radiation effects in shielded underground facilities. 

Lincoln Laboratory researchers collaborated with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory physicists on one of these studies, "Abatement of ionizing radiation for superconducting quantum devices," to assist the quantum computing community to prepare for the next generation of qubit development.