{"id":270346,"date":"2026-01-06T13:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T13:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/270346\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T13:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T13:42:11","slug":"researchers-identify-cobalt-based-molecule-that-can-act-as-a-spin-qubit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/270346\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers Identify Cobalt-based Molecule That Can Act as a Spin Qubit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Insider Brief<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Researchers demonstrated that a cobalt-based molecule with metal\u2013metal bonds can function as a stable, controllable spin qubit, establishing a new molecular design route for quantum information technologies.<\/li>\n<li>The study, led by scientists at Kumamoto University with collaborators in South Korea and Taiwan, showed long spin lifetimes and coherent control using pulsed EPR measurements.<\/li>\n<li>Published in Chemical Communications, the work shows that delocalizing electron spin across multiple metal ions can suppress decoherence and improve molecular qubit performance.<\/li>\n<li>Core structure of [Co\u2083(dpa)\u2084Cl\u2082] with the schematic illustration of spin qubit. (Sekine et al.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>PRESS RELEASE \u2014 Researchers at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ewww.kumamoto-u.ac.jp\/en\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kumamoto University<\/a>, in collaboration with colleagues in South Korea and Taiwan, have discovered that a unique cobalt-based molecule with metal\u2013metal bonds can function as a\u00a0<strong>spin quantum bit (spin qubit)<\/strong>\u2014a fundamental unit for future quantum computers. The findings provide a new design strategy for molecular materials used in quantum information technologies.<\/p>\n<p>Quantum computers process information using quantum bits, or qubits, which can exist in multiple states at the same time. Among various approaches,\u00a0<strong>spin qubits<\/strong>, which use the spin of an electron, are especially attractive because they can be precisely controlled using magnetic resonance techniques. However, creating stable and long-lived spin qubits at the molecular level has remained a major challenge.<\/p>\n<p>The research team focused on a rigid molecule composed of\u00a0<strong>three cobalt ions aligned in a straight line and directly connected by metal\u2013metal bonds<\/strong>. This compound, known as Co\u2083(dpa)\u2084Cl\u2082, is also a \u201cspin-crossover\u201d material, meaning its spin state can change in response to external conditions such as temperature. Until now, whether such a molecule could serve as a spin qubit had not been experimentally confirmed.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thequantuminsider.com\/data\/\" onclick=\"_gs(&#039;event&#039;, &#039;DATA IN CONTENT NEW&#039;)\" class=\"responsive-image\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Website-Banner-Quantum-2.gif\" alt=\"Responsive Image\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Using advanced magnetic measurements and\u00a0<strong>pulsed electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR)<\/strong>\u00a0spectroscopy, the researchers closely examined how long the electron spins in the molecule can maintain their quantum state. They found that the molecule exhibits\u00a0<strong>slow magnetic relaxation<\/strong>, with spin lifetimes long enough to meet key requirements for quantum information processing. Importantly, the electron spin is not confined to a single metal atom but is\u00a0<strong>delocalized across all three cobalt ions<\/strong>, which helps stabilize the quantum state.<\/p>\n<p>The team also observed clear\u00a0<strong>Rabi oscillations<\/strong>, a hallmark of controlled quantum behavior, demonstrating that the spin states can be coherently manipulated. These results show, for the first time, that a molecule with metal\u2013metal bonds can act as a functional spin qubit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis work opens a new pathway for designing molecular qubits,\u201d said Professor Shinya Hayami from\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fast.kumamoto-u.ac.jp\/en\/home\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Faculty of Advanced Science and Technology<\/a>, Kumamoto University, who led the study. \u201cBy using rigid, multinuclear metal complexes, we can suppress unwanted vibrations and achieve longer spin lifetimes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The study was published in the international journal\u00a0Chemical Communications\u00a0by the Royal Society of Chemistry and was featured on the journal\u2019s\u00a0<strong>Outside Front Cover.<\/strong>\u00a0The researchers expect their findings to accelerate the development of molecular-based quantum materials, with potential applications in\u00a0<strong>quantum computing, quantum memory, and spin-based electronics<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Insider Brief Researchers demonstrated that a cobalt-based molecule with metal\u2013metal bonds can function as a stable, controllable spin&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[77],"tags":[5425,18,19,17,137937,133,137938],"class_list":["post-270346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-cobalt","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kumamoto-university","tag-science","tag-spin-qubit"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115848448891020411","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}