Improving coherence and stability of superconducting qubits by thermal annealing in vacuum

J Juan Song H Haisheng Yan Y Yu Song (Department of Chemistry, College of Science) X Xuehui Liang (Beijing Key Laboratory of Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing, Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences 1 , Beijing 100193,) W Weijie Sun M Mo Chen (Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital of Fudan University Shanghai China) Z Zhenyu Mi (Beijing Key Laboratory of Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing, Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences 1 , Beijing 100193,) G Guangming Xue (Beijing Key Laboratory of Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing, Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences 1 , Beijing 100193,) C Cheng Chen Y Yanjun Ma (Beijing Key Laboratory of Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing, Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences 1 , Beijing 100193,) H Haifeng Yu

Abstract

Superconducting qubits are prone to noise induced by material defects, which degrades their coherence and performance of gate operations. In this work, by thermally annealing a chip with 20 tunable transmon qubits in vacuum, we realize an approximate 30% enhancement in the average energy relaxation time T¯1 from 162 to 210 μs. After annealing, T¯1 also shows smaller fluctuations in time, and the aging of the qubits, when kept under ambient conditions, is remarkably decelerated. Our work demonstrates a simple yet highly effective way to improve the coherence and stability of superconducting qubits for scalable superconducting quantum processors.

Article Details

Volume / Issue Vol. 128, Issue 4
Published January 26, 2026
ISSN 0003-6951
Publisher American Institute of Physics

Journal Info

Applied Physics Letters

American Institute of Physics

ISSN: 0003-6951 Physical Sciences

Authors (11)

J

Juan Song

H

Haisheng Yan

Y

Yu Song

Department of Chemistry, College of Science

X

Xuehui Liang

Beijing Key Laboratory of Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing, Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences 1 , Beijing 100193,

W

Weijie Sun

M

Mo Chen

Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital of Fudan University Shanghai China

Z

Zhenyu Mi

Beijing Key Laboratory of Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing, Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences 1 , Beijing 100193,

G

Guangming Xue

Beijing Key Laboratory of Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing, Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences 1 , Beijing 100193,

C

Cheng Chen

Y

Yanjun Ma

Beijing Key Laboratory of Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing, Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences 1 , Beijing 100193,

H

Haifeng Yu