Overlooked element could be part of dream team for quantum computing

A team of scientists based at the London Centre for Nanotechnology and the National High Magnetic Field Lab (NHMFL) in Florida has discovered a new and more efficient way to encode quantum information within silicon. Despite being compatible with the silicon chips all around us, the chemical element bismuth has been overlooked to date in favour of phosphorus atoms in the race to quantum technologies. This is because today's microelectronics use phosphorous dissolved in silicon. However, the researchers have now found that bismuth atoms outperform phosphorus atoms. Bismuth is the heaviest stable atom and has a correspondingly large nuclear 'spin'. Its quantum spin is like a tiny compass needle that can exist in one of ten states corresponding to different tilts (see image below) instead of the two directions available to a phosphorus nucleus. This allows bismuth nuclei to store much more quantum information than phosphorous nuclei.