2025/06/27 by Abhijeet Alase, Alase, Abhijeet, M. C. Goffage +5 · 4 citations
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Graphene research and applications #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Topological Materials and Phenomena
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2506.22394
openalex publication_date 2025/06/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Qubits based on Majorana zero modes (MZMs) in superconductor-semiconductor nanowires have attracted intense interest due to claims that their error rates are suppressed exponentially with increasing nanowire length or decreasing temperature. However, here we show that these qubits are subject to substantial decoherence resulting from the high-frequency components of 1/f charge noise, which is ubiquitous in the materials surrounding the nanowire. This process excites quasiparticles in the bulk of the topological superconductor that cause qubit decoherence even under otherwise ideal conditions. Increasing nanowire capacitance suppresses this mechanism but exposes the qubits to decoherence from externally-generated quasiparticles. Therefore, achieving high-fidelity MZM qubits using superconductor-semiconductor nanowires will require engineering strategies and compromises very similar to those needed for conventional superconducting qubits.