Metamaterials in Superconducting and Cryogenic Quantum Technologies

TL;DR

This review explores how metamaterials can revolutionize superconducting quantum technologies by enhancing coherence, connectivity, and scalability through engineered electromagnetic environments and novel device architectures.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of metamaterials' role in quantum computing, from fundamental principles to state-of-the-art applications and future prospects.

Findings

Metamaterials can significantly improve qubit coherence times.

Engineered environments enable long-range qubit coupling.

Metamaterials facilitate exotic states and topological protection.

Abstract

The development of fault-tolerant quantum computers based on superconducting circuits faces critical challenges in qubit coherence, connectivity, and scalability. This review establishes metamaterials, artificial structures with on-demand electromagnetic properties, as a transformative solution. By engineering the photonic density of states, metamaterials can suppress decoherence via the Purcell effect and create multi-mode quantum buses for hardware-efficient control and long-range qubit coupling. We provide a comprehensive overview, from foundational principles and Hamiltonian engineering to the materials science of high-coherence devices. We survey state-of-the-art performance, highlighting record coherence times and coupling strengths achieved through metamaterial design. Furthermore, we explore advanced applications where engineered environments give rise to exotic excitations and topologically protected states, enabling novel error correction schemes and qubit architectures. Ultimately, we argue that metamaterials are evolving from passive components into the core architectural element of next-generation quantum technologies, paving a viable path toward scalable quantum computation.