Superconducting devices articles from across Nature Portfolio

The authors experimentally study a chain of superconducting islands (SI) and quantum dots (QD), where a Bogoliubov quasiparticle occupies each SI. They demonstrate correlations between the quasiparticles in each SI mediated by a single spin on the QD, known as an “over-screened" doublet state of the QD.

Bolometers can be used for qubit readout, offering a scalable, sensitive and high-speed alternative to current parametric-amplifier-based approaches.

Interesting non-Hermitian quantum dynamics can be accessed in analogue quantum simulators consisting of Hermitian bosonic systems with squeezing and antisqueezing terms. Here, the authors use a coplanar waveguide resonator connected to a SQUID to simulate the bosonic version of the Kitaev chain.

The superconducting diode effect (SDE) might reveal a material’s intrinsic properties. Here a change of sign of the SDE is observed at finite magnetic field in planar Josephson junctions on a hybrid superconductor-semiconductor material.

Leggett modes can occur when superconductivity arises in more than one band in a material and represent oscillation of the relative phases of the two superconducting condensates. Now, this mode is observed in Cd₃As₂, a Dirac semimetal.

Electrons trapped above the surface of solid neon can be used to create qubits using spatial states with different charge distributions. These charge qubits combine direct electric field control with long coherence times.

Chains of coupled superconducting islands known as Josephson junction arrays were predicted to be insulating at high impedance, but superconducting behaviour has been observed. A study of the arrays’ transport suggests thermal effects are responsible.

High-T_c superconducting nanowire detectors can detect single photons of telecom wavelengths at a temperature of 25 K and may enable applications in quantum sensing and quantum information processing.

‘Squeezing’ of light can be used to alter the distribution of quantum noise to benefit quantum sensing and other applications. An improved design for a microwave photon squeezer provides high performance over a large bandwidth.

The magnetic flux in a superconducting loop can only change by discrete jumps called phase slips. The energy dissipated by an individual phase slip has now been detected thanks to advances in precision temperature measurements.

Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors offer outstanding performance, but the development of large-format imaging arrays is challenging. A new approach based on sectioning a single nanowire enables an eightfold improvement of the spatial resolution and the realization of a 1,024-pixel imager.