US superconducting breakthrough could power simple quantum computers

Researchers at the University of Buffalo, in collaboration with teams from Spain, France, and China, have achieved a significant breakthrough by constructing a Josephson junction using only one superconductor layer instead of the traditional two. Typically, a Josephson junction—a critical component in quantum computers—consists of two superconductors separated by a thin barrier, allowing synchronized superconductive behavior. In this new approach, the team used a superconducting vanadium electrode and an iron electrode separated by magnesium oxide, demonstrating that iron, a ferromagnetic material, could participate in Josephson-junction-like behavior despite its spins being aligned in one direction, unlike the opposite spins in superconductors. This unexpected finding challenges existing theories, as iron’s same-spin electron pairs exhibited superconducting properties, potentially enabling more stable quantum computing designs by locking electron spins in place. Moreover, the use of common materials like iron and magnesium oxide—already prevalent in hard drives and RAM—could simplify and reduce the cost of quantum device fabrication. The researchers