On Wednesday, Microsoft unveiled Majorana 1, a quantum chip powered by an exotic state of matter that’s neither liquid, solid, nor gas, called topological superconductivity.
The breakthrough, detailed in the scientific journal Nature, uses a custom-built material known as a topoconductor to create and control Majorana particles, potentially scaling quantum computing to solve previously impossible problems.
In essence, a topconductor is a semiconductor—material that can conduct energy—that also acts as a superconductor that conducts electricity with minimum energy loss, usually at extremely low temperatures.
Creating such material required atomic engineering precision and supercooling to 400 degrees below zero, but Microsoft emphasized that the complexity and expensiveness of the effort are worth it, considering all the benefits.
“With this material, we can build a whole new foundational architecture for our quantum computers, a topological core, allowing us to scale to not tens or hundreds of qubits on a chip, but millions, all in the palm of your hand,” Krysta Svore, technical fellow at Microsoft said in a company video.
The project is the longest-running in Microsoft…
