Nobel prize for physics goes to trio behind quantum computing chips

The Nobel Prize in Physics for 2025 recognizes John Clarke, Michel Devoret, and John Martinis for their revolutionary research on quantum tunneling—pivotal in the development of superconducting quantum technology, the foundation of contemporary quantum computing.

“I am utterly amazed,” Clarke remarked to the Nobel committee upon receiving the news. “I never imagined that my work could be the basis of a Nobel Prize.”

Quantum particles exhibit a host of peculiar characteristics, including their probabilistic behavior and the restriction to discrete energy levels. This often results in unexpected phenomena, such as tunneling through barriers that appear solid. These concepts were explored by early physicists like Erwin Schrödinger shortly after the advent of quantum mechanics.

While the consequences of such behaviors were undoubtedly profound—affecting theories like nuclear decay—observations were mostly limited to isolated particles and rudimentary systems. Questions remained about whether these quantum principles applied to more intricate settings, such as electrical circuits governed by classical physics, where tunneling effects appeared to vanish on a larger scale.

In 1985, Clarke, Martinis, and Devoret, affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley, initiated research to investigate this issue. They examined charged particle behaviors within superconducting circuits known as Josephson junctions, a technology that earned British physicist Brian Josephson the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1973. These junctions incorporate wires with no electrical resistance separated by insulating materials.

The team demonstrated that particles traversing these junctions functioned as a collective entity, adopting specific energy states—a definite quantum characteristic—and recorded a voltage that could only be possible through quantum tunneling across the insulating barrier.

This breakthrough significantly advanced quantum science, empowering other researchers to explore intricate quantum principles on silicon chips.

Moreover, superconducting quantum circuits became fundamental in developing qubits, the essential components of quantum computers. Today’s leading quantum computing systems, built by companies like Google and IBM, consist of numerous superconducting qubits that owe their existence to the foundational work of Clarke, Martinis, and Devoret. “In many respects, our discovery laid the groundwork for quantum computing,” Clarke reflected.

Currently, Martinis and Devoret are both part of Google Quantum AI, which achieved a significant milestone in 2019 by creating the first superconducting quantum computer that demonstrated quantum advantage over classical computation. However, Clarke admitted to the Nobel committee that at that time, the long-term implications of their 1985 findings were not fully fathomed. “We never considered that this discovery could have such a profound impact.”