Quantum Physics, Quantum Hardware

How Italian Team Fabricated a Superconducting Qubit in 2026

Avatar of Ivy Delaney
July 16, 2026 by Ivy Delaney

Researchers at the Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie del CNR in Rome have successfully characterized a superconducting qubit on July 15, 2026, at the COLD laboratory of the Frascati National Laboratories (INFN). Fabricated using the NanoMicroFab infrastructure, the 3D transmon qubit maintains quantum coherence for approximately 0.25 microseconds when in a superposition state. This achievement represents a significant advancement for Italian quantum technology research, occurring over 25 years after Yasunobu Nakamura created the first superconducting qubit in 1999. The team will now use this technology to develop quantum simulators and sensors.

Italian-Made Superconducting Qubit Characterized at Frascati Laboratory

A superconducting qubit fabricated in Italy maintained quantum coherence for 0.25 microseconds, a measurable duration indicating functionality and progress in quantum computing development. The 3D transmon qubit resides within a superconducting cavity manufactured at the INFN’s Legnaro National Laboratories, requiring cooling to fractions of a degree above absolute zero to observe characteristic quantum oscillations. This achievement is the result of extensive development, involving multiple fabrication and experimental characterization cycles, and a collaborative effort spanning several Italian universities including the University of Milan-Bicocca, the University of Milan, and the University of Florence.

The project benefited from funding through QubIT, Quartet, ICSC, NQSTI, and ERC Synergy GravNet, enabling the team to refine a reliable procedure for observing coherent oscillations in quantum systems. The researchers report that “Preparato in uno stato di sovrapposizione quantistica, il qubit è in grado di preservarne la coerenza per circa un quarto di microsecondo,” highlighting the qubit’s ability to sustain a quantum superposition state.

The research team intends to utilize this technology to construct quantum simulators and sensors, with applications focused on investigating fundamental laws of nature; Fabio Chiarello can be contacted at fabio.chiarello@cnr.it for further information. This milestone positions Italian researchers to contribute to advancements in quantum technology and its potential applications.

Stay current

See today’s quantum computing news on Quantum Zeitgeist for the latest breakthroughs in qubits, hardware, algorithms, and industry deals.

Tags:
quantum physics Superconducting Qubit Transmon Qubit
Avatar of Ivy Delaney

Ivy Delaney

Ivy Delaney has been working with neural networks and machine learning since the mid-nineties, back when a couple of hidden layers and a long afternoon of training counted as ambitious. She has watched the field go from academic curiosity to the thing quietly running underneath everything, and she brings that long view to quantum computing. For Quantum Zeitgeist she covers the ground where the two fields meet. That means quantum machine learning and the variational algorithms it leans on, and it also means the less glamorous but more interesting story of classical machine learning already doing real work inside quantum machines, decoding error-correcting codes, calibrating noisy hardware and learning the error models that simulators depend on. She writes about the hardware those algorithms have to run on too, and about the post-quantum cryptography scramble that the same hardware has set off. Her stories typically start with the paper, whether that is peer-reviewed work, conference proceedings or an arXiv preprint, with the source linked so you can hold a claim up against the research it came from. She is unimpressed by benchmarks that will not say what they beat, and by demonstrations that only work in the press release.

Latest Posts by Ivy Delaney: