Physicists at the University of Oxford have set a new world record for how accurately a quantum bit, or qubit, can be controlled. They achieved the lowest error rate ever measured in a quantum logic operation: just 0.000015 percent. That’s only one error in 6.7 million operations! That’s nearly ten times better than the previous record, which was also set by the same team a decade ago. To put it into perspective, you’re more likely to be struck by lightning this year (1 in 1.2 million) than for one of Oxford’s quantum gates to make a mistake. The findings, published recently in Physical Review Letters, are a major advance towards having robust and useful quantum computers. “As far as we are aware, this is the most accurate qubit operation ever recorded anywhere in the world,” said Professor David Lucas, co-author on the paper, from the University of Oxford’s Department of Physics. “It is an important step toward building practical quantum computers that can tackle real-world problems.” To perform useful calculations on a quantum computer, millions of operations will need to be run across many qubits. This means that if the error rate is too high, the final result of the calculation will be meaningless. Although error correction can be used to fix mistakes, this comes at the cost of requiring many more qubits. By reducing the error, the new method reduces the number of qubits required and consequently the cost and size of the quantum computer itself.

Full research : Oxford scientists have set a world record for quantum precision, achieving just one error in 6.7 million operations using microwave-controlled ions.