Granular aluminum for future computers
(PHYSorg.com Chemistry)

Computers based on quantum mechanical principles can solve certain tasks particularly efficiently. Their information carriers, the so-called qubits, not only have the values `0` and `1,` but also states in between, called superposition states. However, maintaining such a state is difficult. Scientists at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have now used granular aluminum (nicknamed grAl) for qubits and have shown that this superconducting material has great potential to overcome the previous limits of quantum hardware. The researchers report in the journal Nature Materials.