In the News
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Quantum physics titans win Breakthrough Prize
From Scientific American: This year’s Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics honors four pioneers who combined math, computer science and physics to do “foundational work in the field of quantum information.” The prize is shared between Charles Bennett of IBM, Gilles Brassard of the University of Montreal, David Deutsch of the University of Oxford and Peter Shor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Read More
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Prestigious New Horizons in Physics Prize awarded to UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering faculty Hannes Bernien
From the University of Chicago: Given to promising early-career researchers who have produced significant work, Q-NEXT collaborator Bernien and his colleagues are being recognized for developing optical tweezer arrays able to control individual atoms for use in quantum information science, metrology, and molecular physics. Read More
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Scientists turn a nanowire with exotic currents into a probe for magnetism
From UIUC: A team of researchers led by Vidya Madhavan at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign added a twist to their scanning tunneling microscope by replacing the tip with a nanowire made from an exotic material. They use the nanowire to image magnetic features in an approach that has potential advantages compared to other methods. The team plans to modify the nanowire to see if it can reveal even more material features or, for example, detect particles called Majorana fermions, which have long been proposed as the basis for novel quantum computing devices. Read More
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Building better quantum sensors
From the University of Chicago: Researchers at the University of Chicago led by Aashish Clark have developed a method to optimize a class of quantum sensors. The approach, published in PRX Quantum, takes advantage of the way defects in diamonds or semiconductors behave like qubits. Read More
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Slimmed-down terminal transmits quantum keys from space
From Physics World: Q-NEXT member Paul Kwiat of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign comments on quantum key distribution in this piece on the successful transmission of quantum keys between a satellite and four ground stations by Hefei National Laboratory and the University of Science and Technology of China. Read More
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Cross-institutional collaboration leads to new control over quantum dot qubits
From the Chicago Quantum Exchange: Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, HRL Laboratories, and University of New South Wales collaborate to better control silicon quantum dot qubits, allowing for higher-quality fabrication and use in wider applications. Read More
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New doors opening: UChicago programs aim to help build the quantum workforce of the future
From the University of Chicago: Teaching quantum concepts early is key to sparking students' interest, but the newness of the field also means that quantum isn't currently part of most high school and undergraduate science curricula. Three outreach programs at the UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, designed to expose a wide range of students to quantum, are changing the landscape. Read More
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As China’s quantum-encrypting satellites shrink, their networking abilities grow
From IEEE Spectrum: The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's Paul Kwiat comments on the Tiangong-2 space lab’s transmission of quantum-encryption keys to four ground stations and on using quantum entanglement for QKD. Read More
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ColdQuanta, Super.tech merger holds industry implications
From Photonics: Quantum company ColdQuanta acquired Chicago-based quantum startup Super.tech in a merger that combines ColdQuanta’s hardware capabilities with Super.tech’s software innovations. Both companies are affiliates of Q-NEXT, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Quantum Information Science Research Center led by Argonne National Laboratory. Read More
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Versatile neutral atoms emerge as an intriguing quantum computing platform
From Physics Today: The University of Wisconsin–Madison's Mark Saffman report the first demonstrations of multistep quantum algorithms in arrays of rubidium atoms. Read More
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David Awschalom wins global Breakthrough of the Year award
David Awschalom, Q-NEXT Chief Science Officer and the Liew Family Professor of Quantum Engineering and Physics at the University of Chicago, received the prestigious Falling Walls Science Breakthrough of the Year in Physical Sciences for a pioneering body of work that broke the wall between quantum technology, molecules, and proteins. Read More
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Helium lifts new quantum computing concept
A team led by Jacob Covey, who is part of Q-NEXT and is an Associate Professor at the University of Chicago, laid out a new concept that could turn helium’s light weight into the next generation of quantum computers. The design relies on helium-3, an isotope with different quantum properties than the helium-4 used to cool MRI machines and fill party balloons. Once built, the computer could use high-powered lasers as “optical tweezers” to capture and control individual atoms of helium. Read More
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Researchers make materials that support quantum technology
Researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who are part of Q-NEXT are engineering material systems that support quantum technology. Chris Anderson and his team are developing materials for quantum transduction — the conversion of quantum information from one form to another. Elizabeth Goldschmidt, Daniel Shoemaker, and colleagues are developing quantum memory technology that stores quantum information for extended periods of time. Read More
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Silicon Chip Offers New Way to Probe Quantum Materials in Strong Magnetic Fields
Scientists have created a silicon chip that can detect the electrical behavior of very small materials by using very high-frequency waves. The chip is made only from silicon and other non-superconducting materials and still performs very well when cooled from room temperature down to about 4 Kelvin. Read More
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Making quantum bits ready to use again much sooner
Scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Intel have found that a simple electrical pulse can quickly push a quantum dot qubit out of a latched state and return it to its starting condition with very high reliability. Read More
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Q-NEXT-developed open-source software receives 2026 R&D 100 award
SeQUeNCe, a free, open-source software developed by Argonne scientists with Q-NEXT support, is one of seven Argonne projects that received a 2026 R&D 100 Award. The SeQUeNCe software lets researchers test how quantum networks might work before building them. Read More
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Researchers generate spontaneous magnons that synchronize with external signals
Researchers at Argonne and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign demonstrate a method for generating stable ripples in magnetic materials called magnons. The work opens avenues for information processing in microelectronics and quantum devices. Read More
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Uncovering the hidden disorder in silicon quantum computers
From the U.S. Department of Energy: Q-NEXT researchers map the variation in materials to the atom level to scale up silicon qubits Read More
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Color centers in high-purity diamond
Researchers mapped how electron irradiation makes defects inside diamond, finding that creating more vacancies does not always produce more NV centers. Too many vacancies can form unwanted defects. This result can inform advances in quantum sensing. Read More
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Containing multitudes: SLAC scientist collaborates to create scalable qubits
At SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Q-NEXT collaborator Shannon Harvey develops quantum dots — a mass-producible type of qubit. Driven by curiosity about nature and how things work, Harvey draws on her facility for working at the nanoscale. Read More