# Towards practical quantum computers: transmon qubit with a lifetime approaching 0.5 milliseconds

Article · Chenlu Wang, Xuegang Li, Huikai Xu, Zhiyuan Li, Junhua Wang, Zhen Yang, Zhenyu Mi, Xuehui Liang, Tang Su, Chuhong Yang, Guangyue Wang, Wenyan Wang, Yongchao Li, Mo Chen, Cheng-Yao Li, Kehuan Linghu, Jiaxiu Han, Yingshan Zhang, Yulong Feng, Yu Hao Song, Teng Ma, Jing-Ning Zhang, Ruixia Wang, Peng Zhao, Weiyang Liu and 3 more

- Archive id: doi:10.1038/s41534-021-00510-2
- Published: 2022-01-13
- Venue: npj Quantum Information
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41534-021-00510-2
- Citations: 374
- Source URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41534-021-00510-2
- PDF: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41534-021-00510-2.pdf
- Provenance: openalex

## Abstract

Abstract Here we report a breakthrough in the fabrication of a long lifetime transmon qubit. We use tantalum films as the base superconductor. By using a dry etching process, we obtained transmon qubits with a best T1 lifetime of 503 μs. As a comparison, we also fabricated transmon qubits with other popular materials, including niobium and aluminum, under the same design and fabrication processes. After characterizing their coherence properties, we found that qubits prepared with tantalum films have the best performance. Since the dry etching process is stable and highly anisotropic, it is much more suitable for fabricating complex scalable quantum circuits, when compared to wet etching. As a result, the current breakthrough indicates that the dry etching process of tantalum film is a promising approach to fabricate medium- or large-scale superconducting quantum circuits with a much longer lifetime, meeting the requirements for building practical quantum computers.

_Abstract reproduced under CC-BY (publisher license, via OpenAlex)._

Topics: [Superconducting Quantum Processors](https://space-kitty.com/topics/superconducting-qubits)

Cited in dossiers:
- [Superconducting Quantum Processors: State of the Field (October 2026)](https://space-kitty.com/dossiers/superconducting-qubits)

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