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Quantum superconducting diode effect with perfect efficiency above liquid-nitrogen temperature

Nature Physics volume 22, pages 47–53 (2026) Cite this article

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Abstract

The superconducting diode is a device that allows supercurrent to flow in one direction but not the other. Usually, the state that does not allow supercurrent has no Cooper pairs. Here we report a quantized version of the superconducting diode that operates solely between Cooper-paired states. This type of quantum superconducting diode takes advantage of quantized Shapiro steps for digitized output. The device consists of twisted high-temperature cuprate superconductors and exhibits the following characteristics. First, we show that a non-reciprocal diode behaviour can be initiated by training with current pulses without applying an external magnetic field. Then, we demonstrate perfect diode efficiency under microwave irradiation above liquid-nitrogen temperature. Lastly, the quantized nature of the output offers high resilience against input noise. These features open up opportunities to develop practical dissipationless quantum circuits.

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Fig. 1: Semiconductor diode, SD and QSD.
The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.
Fig. 2: Initialization protocol and rectification effect of QSD.
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Fig. 3: Noise suppression of QSD.
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Fig. 4: Overview of QSDs.
The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.

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Data availability

Source data are provided with this paper. These data are also available via the Science Data Bank at https://doi.org/10.57760/sciencedb.29370.

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Acknowledgements

We thank G. Gu for providing us with the Bi2212 crystals. This work is financially supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (grant no. 2022YFA1403100 (D.Z. and Q.-K.X.)); the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 12141402 (Y.Z.), 52388201 (D.Z. and Q.-K.X.), 12361141820 (D.Z.), 12274249 (D.Z.) and T2425009 (D.Z.)); Innovation Program for Quantum Science and Technology (grant nos. 2021ZD0302600 (Y.Z. and Z.L.) and 2021ZD0302400 (D.Z.)); and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (grant nos. GZB20240294 (H.W.) and 2024M751287 (H.W.)).

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Heng Wang, Yuying Zhu.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences, Beijing, China

    Heng Wang, Yuying Zhu, Qi-Kun Xue & Ding Zhang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Quantum Physics and Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Heng Wang, Zhonghua Bai, Qi-Kun Xue & Ding Zhang

  3. Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China

    Heng Wang & Qi-Kun Xue

  4. Hefei National Laboratory, Hefei, China

    Yuying Zhu, Zhaozheng Lyu & Ding Zhang

  5. Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Zhaozheng Lyu, Jiangang Yang, Lin Zhao & X. J. Zhou

  6. Frontier Science Center for Quantum Information, Beijing, China

    Qi-Kun Xue & Ding Zhang

  7. RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science, Wako, Saitama, Japan

    Ding Zhang

Authors
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Contributions

H.W. and Y.Z. fabricated the devices. H.W., Y.Z. and D.Z. carried out the transport measurements with technical assistance from Z.L. J.Y., L.Z. and X.J.Z. grew the single crystals. H.W. carried out the theoretical modelling. H.W., Y.Z., D.Z. and Q.-K.X. analysed the data and wrote the paper with the input from Z.B. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yuying Zhu, Qi-Kun Xue or Ding Zhang.

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Nature Physics thanks Chunyu Guo, Jedediah Pixley and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Wang, H., Zhu, Y., Bai, Z. et al. Quantum superconducting diode effect with perfect efficiency above liquid-nitrogen temperature. Nat. Phys. 22, 47–53 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-025-03098-y

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