According to a news release from Oxford University, a quantum world record has been smashed. A typically delicate quantum state has been demonstrated to survive at room temperature for a world record 39 minutes, getting around a significant roadblock to constructing ultrafast quantum computers.

In conventional computers data is kept as a string of 1s and 0s. In the experiment quantum bits of data, “qubits,” were put into a “superposition” state in which they can be both 1s and 0s simultaneously — allowing them to carry out several calculations at the same time.

In the experiment the researchers increased the temperature of a system, in which data is concealed in the nuclei of phosphorous atoms in silicon, from -269 °C to 25 °C and revealed that the superposition state survived at this temperature for 39 minutes — the previous record for a superposition state’s survival at room temperature was about two seconds.

The researchers even discovered that they could manage the qubits as the temperature of the system increased, and that they were strong enough for this information to endure being “refrozen.”

“39 minutes may not seem very long but as it only takes one-hundred-thousandth of a second to flip the nuclear spin of a phosphorus ion – the type of operation used to run quantum calculations – in theory over 20 million operations could be applied in the time it takes for the superposition to naturally decay by one percent. Having such robust, as well as long-lived, qubits could prove very helpful for anyone trying to build a quantum computer,” said author Stephanie Simmons of Oxford University’s Department of Materials in a statement.

“This opens up the possibility of truly long-term coherent information storage at room temperature,” added Mike Thewalt of Simon Fraser University.

The researchers started with a sliver of silicon doped with tiny quantities of other elements, including phosphorus. Quantum information was concealed in the nuclei of the phosphorous atoms; each nucleus has an inherent quantum property known as “spin,” which behaves like a small bar magnet when located in a magnetic field. Spins can be controlled to point up (0), down (1), or any angle in between, depicting a superposition of the two other states.

The researchers readied their sample at just 4 °C above absolute zero and located it in a magnetic field. Extra magnetic field pulses were utilized to tilt the direction of the nuclear spin and produce the superposition states.  When the sample was kept at this cryogenic temperature, the nuclear spins of approximately 37 percent of the ions stayed in their superposition states for three hours. The same fraction endured for 39 minutes when the temperature of the system was increased to 25 °C.

“These lifetimes are at least ten times longer than those measured in previous experiments,” noted Simmons. “We’ve managed to identify a system that seems to have basically no noise. They’re high-performance qubits.”

However, to conduct calculations, the researchers will have to place various qubits in various states.

The study’s findings are described in greater detail in the journal Science.

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