DATE2026.04.23 #Press Releases

Successful Extraction of Electrical Signals from Next-Generation Insulating Quantum Materials

Disclaimer: machine translated by DeepL which may contain errors.

Progress Toward Controlling the "Quantum Spin Liquid" at the Heart of Topological Quantum Computers

Summary 

Currently, one of the greatest challenges in the development of quantum computers is overcoming computational errors caused by external noise. The "quantum spin liquid" state has attracted attention as a promising solution. In this state, information is protected by its topological properties, offering the potential for noise-tolerant quantum computation. 

However, α-RuCl₃, a leading candidate material, is an electric insulator, and the lack of a method to electrically read out and control its internal spin information has been a major obstacle to practical applications.

In this study, a research group led by Hiroshi Idzuchi (Project Associate Professor, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo; Assistant Professor at WPI-AIMR, Tohoku University at the time of the research started), Yong P. Chen (Professor, Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University; also affiliated with WPI-AIMR), and Motoi Kimata (Deputy Principal Researcher, Japan Atomic Energy Agency; Associate Professor at the institute for Materials Research at that time), and thier collaborators fabricated an electrical device by interfacing platinum (Pt) with α-RuCl₃. As shown in Figure 1, by rotating the in-plane magnetic field while passing a current through the Pt layer and detecting change in the device resistance, they successfully achieved electrical readout of the spin information in the adjacent α-RuCl₃.

This result was published in the physics journal Newton on April 22, 2026 (local time).

Figure 1. Schematic of spin element (top), spin liquid due to anisotropic interactions on the lattice (bottom left), electrical oscillating signal (bottom center), and widely observed spin anisotropy in the crossing direction (bottom right).

Links

WPI-AIMR (Advanced Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University)

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