Miniaturizing Transmon Qubits Using van der Waals Materials

Quantum computers can potentially achieve an exponential speedup versus classical computers on certain computational tasks, recently demonstrated in superconducting qubit processors. However, the capacitor electrodes that comprise these qubits must be large in order to avoid lossy dielectrics. This tactic hinders scaling by increasing parasitic coupling among circuit components, degrading individual qubit addressability, and limiting the spatial density of qubits. Here, we take advantage of the unique properties of van der Waals (vdW) materials to reduce the qubit area by >1000 times while preserving the capacitance while maintaining quantum coherence. Our qubits combine conventional aluminum-based Josephson junctions with parallel-plate capacitors composed of crystalline layers of superconducting niobium diselenide and insulating hexagonal boron nitride. We measure a vdW transmon T₁ relaxation time of 1.06 μs, demonstrating a path to achieve high-qubit-density quantum processors with long coherence times, and the broad utility of layered heterostructures in low-loss, high-coherence quantum devices.