News

The European Research Council (ERC), which each year supports the fundamental research projects of a few scientists, has announced the winners of the Consolidator grants: 12 CNRS laureates, out of 37 hosted by France, including our colleague Nicolas Roch for his SuperProtected project.

His work focuses on the experimental realization of new electronic components that take advantage of the unique properties of quantum mechanics. To do this he uses superconducting materials that allow a minimum of dissipation, and he cools these circuits close to absolute zero (-273°C), so that their quantum properties are not destroyed by temperature.

Although expectations and promises regarding quantum information are increasingly expected, there is still a major difficulty to overcome: the phenomenon of quantum decoherence, which makes the best current quantum chips quasi-inoperative even at very low temperatures. The SuperProtected project aims at establishing a generation of superconducting quantum bits that will be intrinsically protected against decoherence thanks to a new way of encoding quantum information and innovative nano-fabrication techniques.