Triplet Superconductivity and Quantum Qubits

Most current prototypes of quantum computers are using superconducting materials to carry quantum computation, as these materials are able to keep quantum properties more stable, with the major alternative being the so-called ”trapped-ion quantum computer”.

So far, only trapped-ion models have proven to be sufficiently reliable, but they are very limiting in the number of useful qubits they can contain (the quantum computer equivalent of an ordinary computer’s bit).

Of course, the ideal option would be to improve superconducting materials so they become fit for quantum calculations. And some effort has been done in that direction, notably with lattice surgeryand with longer-lasting qubits. But still, this is proving not enough to create commercial, scalable superconducting quantum computers.

Another advanced field of computing science is spintronics, which uses the quantum characteristics of particles, spin, instead of electrical charges like in classical electronic computing. So far, quantum computing and spintronics have been somewhat related, but not directly joined, as superconducting materials do not have a spin. At least until now.

(You can learn more about spintronics in our article dedicated to this technology)

A team of researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and the Università degli Studi di Salerno (Italy) might have discovered a triplet superconductor, a type of superconductor with unique spin properties.

This new type of superconducting material could be a game-changer for the building of superconducting quantum computers. They published their findings in Physical Review Letters, under the title “Unveiling Intrinsic Triplet Superconductivity in Noncentrosymmetric NbRe through Inverse Spin-Valve Effects”.

“A triplet superconductor is high on the wish list of many physicists working in the field of solid-state physics. Materials that are triplet superconductors are a kind of ‘holy grail’ in quantum technology, and more specifically, quantum computing.”

Professor Jacob Linder – Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Meanwhile, another team of researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (The Netherlands), Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden), University of Regensburg (Germany), and the company Quantum Machines have discovered how to defects, a key issue plaguing superconducting material with a new form of efficient fluctuation detection.

They published their findings in Physical Review X2, under the title “Real-Time Adaptive Tracking of Fluctuating Relaxation Rates in Superconducting Qubits”.

Triplet Superconductors

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Why It Matters?

In theory, spin could be a perfect medium of transfer of quantum information between qubits and between different quantum computers.

The issue is that in its current form, the technology is just too unstable and the transfer of information too complex to be of practical use.

This might, however, not be true if we got access to triplet superconductors. This is because they can transfer spin without energy loss, so the superconducting particles now carry spin with them.

“Triplet superconductors make a number of unusual physical phenomena possible. These phenomena have important applications in quantum technology and spintronics.”

Professor Jacob Linder – Norwegian University of Science and Technology

So while a more ordinary singlet superconductor can carry power without resistance, a triplet superconductor could also carry spin currents with absolutely zero resistance. As a result, a quantum or spintronic computer could be ultra-fast while also operating while using almost no electricity at all!

Niobium–Rhenium Alloy’s

In their work, the researchers discovered that NbRe, a niobium–rhenium alloy, displays behavior characteristic of a triplet superconductor.

More precisely, they found “inverse spin-valve effect”, a special case of giant magnetoresistance, a magnetic property of multilayer materials, which discovery won the 2007 Nobel Prize.

This is not, in itself, proof that NbRe is a triplet superconductor, but it definitely proves that it does not behave the way a conventional singlet superconductor should.

Long Term Potential

This discovery has extra potential as NbRe is readily available in thin-film form, and the simplicity of the heterostructure makes it especially viable as a potential scalable platform for superconducting spintronics.

In addition, the material works as a superconductor at relatively high temperature (at least by superconducting materials standards), or just 7 degrees Celsius above absolute zero at -273.15 °C (−459.67 °F), while most other candidate materials need as little as one degree above absolute zero.

However, both niobium and rhenium are expensive and rare metals, so they will not directly make quantum computers cheaper.

The next step will be to have other researchers confirm these findings and conduct further tests pointing to triplet superconductivity.

Triplet superconductors can also be used to create a very exotic type of particle called a “Majorana particle”, which is its own antiparticle. Therefore, it can perform calculations in a quantum computer in a stable way.

As other researchers are also getting closer to leveraging Majorana particles and Microsoft already has a chip with Majorana Zero Modes (MZMs), this seems to be an increasingly promising direction for the future advancement of quantum computing.

Detecting Quantum Material Defects

Too Quick Changes

The materials in which qubits are embedded often display defects that are responsible for the unreliability of the qubit. These defects can spatially fluctuate extremely fast, sometimes hundreds of times per second.

So the current method of detection of these defects, which can take up to a minute, is completely insufficient to catch them. In fact, nobody exactly knew how fast this happened until now.

Instead, researchers are forced to measure an average energy-loss rate, which often gives an incomplete picture of the qubit’s true performance.

As a result, quantum computers relying on superconductivity need to rely on many “tricks” to still manage to perform their computation, even when, a lot of times, the qubit has suffered decoherence, without the user being able to detect it.

Using Classic Computers To Help

To speed up the detection of defects, the researchers used a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), a specialized controller. These specialized chips are not as flexible as the ones used in CPUs or GPUs, but they are ultra-specialized, much faster at a specific task, and less energy demanding.

By running the experiment directly on the FPGA, they could form a “best guess” of how quickly the qubit would lose its energy based on only a handful of measurements.

While this seems like an obvious solution, programming the FPGA correctly was very challenging, especially if the FPGA needs to be a little flexible.

The method they used is that the chip updates its internal “knowledge”, called a Bayesian model, after every single qubit measurement.

Source: Physical Review X

This allowed the system to continuously adapt how it learned about the qubit’s state as efficiently as possible.

“The controller enables very tight integration between logic, measurements, and feedforward: these components made our experiment possible.”

Associate Professor Morten Kjaergaard – Niels Bohr Institute

Toward Real-Time Calibration

Until now, the quantum computing industry had to just “hope” that their qubits were still working, and worked hard at reducing the probability and speed of decoherence.

But this new approach opens the way for calculation actively picking reliable qubits, even with less than perfect materials.

“With our algorithm, the fast control hardware can pinpoint which qubit is ’good’ or ’bad’ basically in real time. We can also gather useful statistics on the ’bad` qubits in seconds instead of hours or days.”

Associate Professor Morten Kjaergaard – Niels Bohr Institute

In the long run, this will open a new field of investigation, where a better understanding of what makes an individual “bad” qubit, instead of relying on averages and guesses.

Conclusion

As at the dawn of electronics, quantum computing progress will come from a multitude of directions.

One important aspect will be the production of better superconducting materials, able to create more stable and durable qubits. And maybe also transport information in the form of a superconducting spin current at the same time.

Meanwhile, improved detection of the decoherence of a given qubit could provide a sensor & software-driven method to radically improve performance without relying on more complex or hard-to-manufacture materials.

Investing in Quantum Computing Innovation

Microsoft

While Microsoft is most known for its very strong presence in operating systems with Windows, it is also a juggernaut in many other tech fields.

For example, it is the leader in business solutions, including Office (Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint), but also company calls (Teams), cloud-shared storage (OneDrive), Visio (diagrams, charts), Loop (collaborative workspace), and Access (database).

While it is not the leader in cloud services (dominated by Amazon’s AWS), Microsoft is making up 20% of global cloud infrastructure through its Azure platform, as large as the combined shares of Google + Alibaba + Oracle.

Source: Statista

Microsoft is also the owner of LinkedIn, GitHub, Xbox, and many of the world’s largest videogame studios.

When it comes to AI, Microsoft has been more focused on technical use cases and business applications than consumer apps, notably with the AI4Science program, on AIs useful for scientific research.

This includes, for example, speeding the work of material scientists to design new molecules or battery electrodes by having an AI narrow down 32 million potential materials to 500,000 candidates, and then to 800 in less than 80 hours.

Source: Microsoft

Companies like Unilever are already using this “Generative Chemistry” to speed up their scientific discoveries.

Until now, when it comes to quantum computing, Microsoft had seemed to be lagging compared to Google or IBM; it was offering quantum computing cloud services with Azure Quantum. The service can also offer “hybrid computing”, mixing quantum computing with traditional cloud-based supercomputer service.

Source: Microsoft

As Microsoft released its own Majorana particle-based chip in early 2025, the company has become one of the global leaders in quantum computing.

With new materials like triplet superconductors or new possibilities of real-time calibration, it is likely that Microsoft will be able to keep progressing and integrate these new tools into its own quantum computers.

(You can also read our article putting the spotlight on Microsoft as a whole in more detail to better understand the company).

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Study Referenced

<sup>1. F. Colangelo et al, Unveiling Intrinsic Triplet Superconductivity in Noncentrosymmetric NbRe through Inverse Spin-Valve Effects. Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 226002 – Published 25 November, 2025. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/q1nb-cvh6
2. Fabrizio Berritta, et al. Real-Time Adaptive Tracking of Fluctuating Relaxation Rates in Superconducting Qubits. Phys. Rev. X 16, 011025 – Published 13 February, 2026. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/gk1b-stl3</sup>