China achieves breakthrough in silicon-28 isotope production

Chinese scientists have achieved a key technological breakthrough expected to advance China's efforts in quantum computing.

Engineers at the Research Institute of Physical and Chemical Engineering of Nuclear Industry, a Tianjin-based subsidiary of China National Nuclear Corp, said Monday they have achieved mass production of silicon-28 isotope with extremely high purity.

The products feature isotopic abundance exceeding 99.99 percent, ending China's reliance on foreign imports.

According to the institute, the core performance metrics of the silicon-28 isotope have reached internationally advanced levels, laying a material foundation for the country's independent development of silicon-based quantum computing components. The material is also expected to support research in advanced-node semiconductors, high-precision navigation systems and metrological benchmarks.

Researchers said silicon-28 is a stable isotope of silicon with zero nuclear spin and is often described as "the purest silicon on Earth." This property significantly suppresses environmental noise interference in quantum computing operations, making it a core material for silicon-based quantum chips.

The achievement marks a substantive advance in China's efforts to build a self-reliant and coordinated stable isotope industrial system.

Beyond supporting frontier scientific development and national security applications, stable isotopes also have uses in nuclear medical imaging, precision radiotherapy, nuclear security forensics, environmental tracing and fundamental physics research, according to the researchers.