Realization of superconducting transmon qubits based on topological insulator nanowires

Topological-material-based Josephson junctions have the potential to be used to host Majorana zero modes and to construct topological qubits. For operating the topological qubits at an appropriate timescale to avoid decoherence and quasiparticle poisoning, one would eventually go to the time domain and embed the topological qubits into quantum electrodynamic circuits. Here, we constructed a topological-insulator-nanowire-based transmon qubit and demonstrated its strong coupling to a coplanar waveguide resonator. The flux-tunable spectrum and Rabi oscillations with a qubit lifetime T-1 of similar to 0.5 mu s were observed. Such a hybrid platform, containing topological materials and quantum electrodynamic circuits, can further be used to study the physical properties such as Majorana zero modes in topological quantum circuits.

Automated summary

A topological-insulator-nanowire-based transmon qubit was constructed and its strong coupling to a coplanar waveguide resonator was demonstrated. Flux-tunable spectrum and Rabi oscillations with a qubit lifetime T-1 of approximately 0.5 μs were observed. This hybrid platform, combining topological materials and quantum electrodynamic circuits, can be used to study physical properties such as Majorana zero modes in topological quantum circuits.