In the News
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Argonne National Lab testing quantum internet
In a major step forward for quantum technology, the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago recently announced they had completed successful tests on what they call a “quantum loop,” which serves as a precursor for what may one day be a national quantum internet. Read More
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Scientists take important step in developing national quantum internet
Real-world experiment in Chicago suburbs achieves quantum entanglement across 52-mile fiber network. Read More
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Argonne Quantum Loop – an important step in developing national quantum internet
Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago entangled photons across a 52-mile network in the Chicago suburbs, an important step in developing a national quantum internet. Read More
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Energy leading way to tomorrow's quantum internet
Imagine a completely secure network, one that cannot be cracked no matter how sophisticated the cyber assailant or how determined the hack. Further, imagine that the network connects computers that can solve challenges of incredible complexity – problems that are literally beyond the reach of today’s fastest systems– and joins together devices in a quantum internet-of-things, opening up whole new areas of scientific research. Read More
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Creating the heart of a quantum computer: Developing qubits
A computer is suspended from the ceiling. Delicate lines and loops of silvery wires and tubes connect gold-colored platforms. It seems to belong in a science-fiction movie, perhaps a steam-punk cousin of HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey. But as the makers of that 1968 movie imagined computers the size of a spaceship, this technology would have never crossed their minds – a quantum computer. Read More
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Building the quantum workforce
Argonne National Laboratory and Fermilab are part of the Chicago Quantum Exchange (CQE), an intellectual hub for research and development of quantum technology. The Exchange’s faculty has a new project up their sleeves – teaching students in the University of Chicago’s new certificate program for STEM professionals to learn about quantum technologies. Read More
News and features
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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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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