Physicists at the University of Vienna have discovered magnons with lifespans that are one hundred times longer.
Magnons are tiny waves of magnetization that move through solid magnetic materials, similar to ripples spreading across water after a stone falls in. Unlike photons, which can move through empty space or optical fibers, magnons travel inside magnetic solids.
Their wavelengths can shrink to the nanometer scale, which means magnonic circuits could, in theory, fit onto chips as small as those used in modern smartphones. Because magnons are excitations within a solid, they can naturally interact with many other fundamental quasiparticles, including phonons and photons, making them promising components for hybrid quantum systems and quantum metrology.
The main limitation has been their extremely short lifetime. Until now, magnons could reliably carry quantum information for only a few hundred nanoseconds at best, which is far too brief for practical quantum computing.
The team led by Wiener has now reported a major advance, measuring magnon lifetimes of up to 18 microseconds, almost one hundred times longer than any previous observation, paving the way for a quantum computer the size of a 1-cent coin. At that scale, magnons stop behaving like short-lived signals and begin to resemble dependable carriers of quantum information, comparable to the superconducting qubits used in today’s leading quantum processors. The findings were recently published in the journal Science Advances.
Colder crystals revealed the limit
The advance came from combining two strategies. First, instead of using conventional uniform magnons, the team generated short wavelength magnons, which are naturally less affected by defects on the crystal surface. Those surface defects had limited magnon lifetimes in earlier experiments.
Second, the researchers placed extremely pure spheres of yttrium iron garnet (YIG) inside a mixed phase cryostat and cooled them to just 30 millikelvin, only a tiny fraction above absolute zero. At such low temperatures, the thermal processes that normally destroy magnons are effectively frozen out.
The team also showed that the remaining limit on magnon lifetime is not set by a basic law of physics. Instead, it depends on tiny trace impurities inside the crystal. The researchers tested three spheres with different purity levels and found a clear pattern: purer material allowed magnons to last longer. Even the least pure sample outperformed all previous records. That means future improvements may depend mainly on better materials science rather than on uncovering new physics.
What this means for quantum technology
A lifetime of 18 microseconds could turn magnons from weak intermediate links into strong quantum memories and efficient communication channels on a chip. They may be able to connect hundreds of qubits through a shared pathway, serving as a long awaited quantum bus for scalable quantum computers.
Because magnons exist in a solid material and can interact with many different quantum systems, they could also act as universal translators in hybrid quantum architectures, connecting technologies that otherwise cannot easily communicate with one another.
Reference: “Ultralong-living magnons in the quantum limit” by Rostyslav O. Serha, Kaitlin H. McAllister, Fabian Majcen, Sebastian Knauer, Timmy Reimann, Carsten Dubs, Gennadii A. Melkov, Alexander A. Serga, Vasyl S. Tyberkevych, Andrii V. Chumak and Dmytro A. Bozhko, 1 May 2026, Science Advances.
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aee2344
This material is based on the work supported by the National Science Foundation under award no. DMR-2338060 (D.A.B.). This research was funded in whole or in part by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) project no. 10.55776/I6568 (A.V.C.) and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation)—TRR 173—268565370 Spin+X (Projects B01 and B04) (A.A.S.).
Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.
Follow us on Google and Google News.
1 Comment
THE FEATURES OF ALL FOUNDATIONS ARE WITHIN UNLESS A THEORTICAL THREE-TYPES OF NON-METALLIC SEMI-CONDUCTORS/ELECTRIC-CHARGES :(A MULITPLE ISSUES OF THESE FUNDAMENTALS DUE TO ALL-EMPHASIS AMOUNTS INTO ALL COLLECTIONS ARE DESCRIPITONS OF MEASUREMENTS INTERNATIONAL TO THESE COMPLETED AS WELL- SIMPLE CHARGES INTO THESE BOTH ARE [2] NEGATIVE(ICONS) ARE ALL WAYS ATOMIC NUMBER & ATOMIC MASS REPLCED BY INFINTY IN EACH VIRTUES DUE TO THESE INTO THE FOLLOWING INTO THESE VELOCTIY IS PROVEN TO BE (***)EACH SUN/EARTH/MERCURY NOT MARS OR PLUTO(DATA-BASE IN THESE TERMS ARE OF “EVEN”THEORIES ARE THESIS NOT ONLY BUT REPLCES THE NEGATIVE ICONS ARE COLLECTIONS ARE COMPLETES ARE COMMON ISSUES {3}PLUSE/VELOCITY & THEOR-TICAL COLLECTIONS OF EACH INTO THESE ELECTRONICS THE LOST ELEMENTS TO BE CREATED BY INCORPATIONS AND DESCRIPTIONS ARE VIRTUES NOT REALITY INTO PROCESS INTO THESE QUESTIONS OF DOUBTS/DESCRIPTIONS/DEFINTIONS (D/D/D)THE THREE WIRES ARE ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND SERIES ARE COMPLETED INTO THESE QUESTIONS ARE CONNECTED BY EACH COLLECTIONS OF EVENLY-DISTRUBTIONS NOT INCREASED BY (+(-)+=NEGATIVE ICONS DISCUSS INTO
THESE COLLECTIONS ARE QUESTIONS DUE TO COLLECTIONS AND SERIES EVERYTHING DUE TO THESE INTO PROCESS WITHOUT THESE TWO PLUS TWO IS 0.24 REVERSED ADDITIONS AND SUBSTRATION TWO ATOMS (POSITIVE) & 3 NEGATIVE AND THE NEW INTRODUCTION IS VALUES OF EACH DESCRIPTIONS ARE COMPLETED CORRECTIONS OF REALITY IN THE ISSUES QUESTIOS MEASURES OF REASONING INTO THREE TYPES OF REALM IDUE TO PROCESSED FOUNDATIONS NOT FUNDAMENTALS ARE SIMPLE ISSUES ARE QUESTIONS & DEVELOPMENTAL ISSUES A SIMLPE ISSUES DUE TO INNER-COLLECTIONS OF DATA-BASE INTO INNER-COMPLETES INTO THESE QUESTIONS DESCRIBED NOT COLLECTED INTO FUTURE INTO THESE COMPROMSIED NOTES OF REALITY INCREASED COMBINATIONS ARE *(THE ERA(S)-GOLDEN AGE THE REVERALS INTO THESE
COMBINATIONS ARE DESCRIPITONS AND SERIES ARE VALUED BY EACH AND SERIES OF COLLECTIONS:THE FOLLOWING DESCRIPTIONS ARE QUESTIONS INTO THESE ASSUMPTIONS INTO THESE QUESTIONS DUE TO THESE RESULTS.THE NEWLY INTRODCUTED INTO THESE QUESTIONS ARE DUE TO THESE UNIVERISALS ARE COMBINATIONS OF DEVELOPED VIRTUES ARE COMPLETED AND DESCRIPTIONS MEASURES A WELL-KNOWN (BIO-REALITY)THESE COMMON FOLLOWING INNER-0-CORE IS REALITY OF ALL-TIMES AND SERIES ARE COMPOUND FOR ALL COLLECTIONS ARE DESCRIPTIONS AND QUESTIONS A WELL-DEVELOPED NOT BUT RE-FEASED AND COLLECTIONS ARE DEVELOPED SIMPLE ISSUES ARE ALL VALUES NOT ONLY “BIO-REALITY.THE NEW DEVELOPED INTO THESE QUESTIONS ARE A SIMPLE-VIRTUES INTO THE FEATURES OF EVERYTHING INTO THESE QUESTIONS .