Individual solid-state nuclear spin qubits with coherence exceeding seconds

Nature Physics (2025)Cite this article The ability to coherently control and read out qubits is a crucial requirement for any quantum processor. Individual nuclear spins in solid-state systems have been used as long-lived qubits with control and readout performed using individual electron spin ancilla qubits that can be addressed either electrically or optically. Here we present a platform for quantum information processing, consisting of 183W nuclear spin qubits adjacent to an Er3+ impurity in a CaWO4 crystal coupled to a superconducting resonator. We study two nuclear spin qubits with \({T}_{2}^{* }\) of 0.8(2) s and 1.2(3) s, and T2 of 3.4(4) s and 4.4(6) s, respectively. The nuclear spin state influences the number of photons emitted after repeated excitation of the Er3+ electron ancilla spin qubit, enabling quantum non-demolition readout using a single microwave photon detector. Using stimulated Raman driving on the coupled electron–nuclear-spin system, we implement all-microwave one- and two-qubit gates on a timescale of a few milliseconds, and prepare a decoherence-protected Bell state. Our results position this platform as a potential route towards quantum processing using nuclear spins.This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription 27,99 € / 30 days cancel any timeSubscribe to this journal Receive 12 print issues and online access 251,40 € per yearonly 20,95 € per issueBuy this articlePrices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkoutThe data supporting the findings of this article are available via Figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.29635709 (ref. 45). Additional data are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.The code used to perform the experiments and analyse the data in this work are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.Steger, M. et al. Quantum information storage for over 180 s using donor spins in a 28Si semiconductor vacuum. Science 336, 1280–1283 (2012).Article ADS Google Scholar Pla, J. J. et al. High-fidelity readout and control of a nuclear spin qubit in silicon. Nature 496, 334–338 (2013).Article ADS Google Scholar Zhong, M. et al. Optically addressable nuclear spins in a solid with a six-hour coherence time. Nature 517, 177–180 (2015).Article ADS Google Scholar Maurer, P. C. et al. Room-temperature quantum bit memory exceeding one second. Science 336, 1283–1286 (2012).Article ADS Google Scholar Raha, M. et al. Optical quantum nondemolition measurement of a single rare earth ion qubit. Nat. Commun. 11, 1605 (2020).Article Google Scholar Kindem, J. M. et al. Control and single-shot readout of an ion embedded in a nanophotonic cavity. Nature 580, 201–204 (2020).Article ADS Google Scholar Ruskuc, A. et al. Scalable multipartite entanglement of remote rare-earth ion qubits. Nature 639, 54–59 (2025).Article ADS Google Scholar Pla, J. J. et al. Coherent control of a single Si 29 nuclear spin qubit. Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 246801 (2014).Article ADS Google Scholar Madzik, M. T. et al. Precision tomography of a three-qubit donor quantum processor in silicon. Nature 601, 348–353 (2022).Article ADS Google Scholar Abobeih, M. H. et al. One-second coherence for a single electron spin coupled to a multi-qubit nuclear-spin environment. Nat. Commun. 9, 2552 (2018).Article ADS Google Scholar Waldherr, G. et al. Quantum error correction in a solid-state hybrid spin register. Nature 506, 204–207 (2014).Article ADS Google Scholar Muhonen, J. T. et al. Storing quantum information for 30 seconds in a nanoelectronic device. Nat. Nanotechnol. 9, 986–991 (2014).Article ADS Google Scholar Fernández de Fuentes, I. et al. Navigating the 16-dimensional Hilbert space of a high-spin donor qudit with electric and magnetic fields. Nat. Commun. 15, 1380 (2024).Article ADS Google Scholar Yu, X. et al. Creation and manipulation of Schrödinger cat states of a nuclear spin qudit in silicon. Nat. Phys. 21, 362–367 (2025).Article Google Scholar Thiele, S. et al. Electrically driven nuclear spin resonance in single-molecule magnets. Science 344, 1135–1138 (2014).Article ADS Google Scholar Godfrin, C. et al. Operating quantum states in single magnetic molecules: implementation of Grover’s quantum algorithm. Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 187702 (2017).Article ADS Google Scholar Bradley, C. E. et al. A ten-qubit solid-state spin register with quantum memory up to one minute. Phys. Rev. X 9, 031045 (2019).

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We acknowledge support of the Région Ile-de-France through the DIM QUANTIP, from the AIDAS virtual joint laboratory and from the France 2030 plan under the ROBUSTSUPERQ (ANR-22-PETQ-0003) grant. This project has received funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the project OpenSuperQ100+, under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 945298-ParisRegionFP and from the European Research Council under grant no. 101042315 (INGENIOUS). We thank the support of the CNRS research infrastructure INFRANALYTICS (FR 2054) and Initiative d’Excellence d’Aix-Marseille Université – A*MIDEX (AMX-22-RE-AB-199). We acknowledge IARPA and Lincoln Labs for providing the Josephson Traveling-Wave Parametric Amplifier. We acknowledge the crystal lattice visualization tool VESTA. E.F. acknowledges support from the PEPR NISQ2LSQ Project (ANR-22- PETQ-0006). S. L. and R.B.L were supported by the Innovation Programme for Quantum Science and Technology project no. 2023ZD0300600, the National Natural Science Foundation of China/Hong Kong Research Council Collaborative Research Scheme project CRS-CUHK401/22, the Hong Kong Research Grants Council Senior Research Fellow Scheme project SRFS2223-4S01 and the New Cornerstone Science Foundation.These authors contributed equally: James O’Sullivan, Jaime Travesedo.Quantronics group, Service de Physique de l’État Condensé (CNRS, UMR 3680), IRAMIS, CEA-Saclay, Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, FranceJames O’Sullivan, Jaime Travesedo, Louis Pallegoix, Zhiyuan W. Huang, Alexandre S. May, Boris Yavkin, Daniel Estève, Denis Vion, Patrick Abgrall, Patrice Bertet & Emmanuel FlurinLondon Centre for Nanotechnology, London, UKPatrick HoganAlice&Bob, Paris, FranceAlexandre S. MayDepartment of Physics, Centre for Quantum Coherence, The State Key Laboratory of Quantum Information Technologies and Materials, and New Cornerstone Science Laboratory, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong, ChinaSen Lin & Ren-Bao LiuUniversité Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, FranceThierry ChaneliereCNRS, Aix-Marseille Univ. University of Toulon, Marseille, FranceSylvain BertainaChimie ParisTech, PSL University, Paris, FrancePhilippe GoldnerSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarThe experiment was designed by J.T., J.O’S., E.F. and P.B. The crystal was grown by P.G. and characterized by EPR spectroscopy by S.B. The spin resonator chip was designed and fabricated by J.T. with the help of P.A. The SMPD was designed, fabricated and characterized by L.P. under supervision of E.F. Data were acquired by J.O’S. and J.T. with the help of Z.W.H. and P.H. Data analysis and simulations were conducted by J.T., J.O’S., Z.W.H. and P.H. The manuscript was written by J.O’S., J.T. and P.B. with contributions from all co-authors. The project was supervised by P.B. and E.F.Correspondence to James O’Sullivan, Jaime Travesedo or Emmanuel Flurin.The authors declare no competing interests.Nature Physics thanks Zong-Quan Zhou and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.Supplementary Figs. 1–9, Discussion and Table 1.Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.Reprints and permissionsO’Sullivan, J., Travesedo, J., Pallegoix, L. et al. Individual solid-state nuclear spin qubits with coherence exceeding seconds. Nat. Phys. (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-025-03049-7Download citationReceived: 06 December 2024Accepted: 27 August 2025Published: 22 October 2025DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-025-03049-7Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative