Grant: Alliance Grants

Quantum computers have the potential to solve difficult problems of critical societal relevance, in areas including energy, pharmaceuticals, materials, and cybersecurity. While the theoretical foundation of quantum computing is solidly established, the practical implementation of quantum computers is a scientifically and technologically daunting task. Recent years were marked by major investments internationally into the development of practical quantum computers, which led to the creation of quantum computing systems with tens to thousands of qubits. However, for quantum computers to become more powerful than existing computers, further advances are needed to reduce the error rates of the quantum bits forming the quantum computer in a scalable architecture. The proposed research project undertakes the ambitious objective of advancing quantum computing technology based on superconducting devices. This technology is one of the most promising for the implementation of powerful quantum computers. This work will focus on the fluxonium qubit, a type of superconducting qubit that has recently shown great potential to become the next state-of-the-art platform for quantum computing. The proposal brings together University of Waterloo, an organization with a strong track record on research on superconducting quantum systems, and D-Wave, a leading quantum computing company. This work is a comprehensive effort to improve fluxonium quantum bits in a scalable architecture, tackling a range of challenging problems in quantum design, noise characterization, nanofabrication, and quantum control. This project will leverage Canada's investment in quantum information research and contribute new knowledge to the development of powerful quantum computers, strengthening Canada's leadership the field.