Krypton Gas Could Increasingly Be Used in Quantum Computing
Krypton gas is emerging as an unlikely fix for one of quantum computing's manufacturing headaches. Cornell researchers have found that replacing argon with krypton gas during a key fabrication step allows tantalum, a metal prized for superconducting devices, to be deposited at much lower temperatures. That single change could remove a major obstacle between tantalum's promise in the lab and its practical use in chip factories, and bring us closer to developing functional quantum computers. Bonding tantalum to a silicon wafer has generally required heat well above 400°C (about 752°F), which is more than many pieces of chip-fabrication equipment are designed to handle. The new method brings that figure down…

