Advances in materials science and engineering have played a central role in the development of classical computers and will undoubtedly be critical in propelling the maturation of quantum information technologies. In approaches to quantum computation based on superconducting circuits, as one goes from bulk materials to functional devices, amorphous films and non-equilibrium excitations — electronic and phononic — are introduced, leading to dissipation and fluctuations that limit the computational power of state-of-the-art qubits and processors. In this Review, the major sources of decoherence in superconducting qubits are identified through an exploration of seminal qubit and resonator experiments. The proposed microscopic mechanisms associated with these imperfections are summarized, and directions for future research are discussed. The trade-offs between simple qubit primitives based on a single Josephson tunnel junction and more complex designs that use additional circuit elements, or new junction modalities, to reduce sensitivity to local noise sources are discussed, particularly in the context of materials optimization strategies for each architecture.

材料科学和工程的进步在经典计算机的发展中发挥了核心作用，无疑对推动量子信息技术的成熟至关重要。在基于超导电路的量子计算方法中，随着从大块材料到功能器件，非晶薄膜和非平衡激发——电子和声子——被引入，导致耗散和波动，限制了状态的计算能力——最先进的量子位和处理器。在这篇评论中，通过探索开创性的量子位和谐振器实验，确定了超导量子位退相干的主要来源。总结了与这些缺陷相关的拟议微观机制，并讨论了未来研究的方向。