Q-NEXT Updates
-
Verizon brings carrier perspective to Q-NEXT
If you’re setting out to help build a new kind of communication network that will one day crisscross the country, it’s good to have the perspective of a company who has a successful track record. The largest wireless carrier in the United States, Verizon, a Q-NEXT partner, is assessing how to scale the center’s science for practical applications. Read More
-
Preparing for breakthroughs in quantum sensing
We have a great opportunity for advancing quantum sensing through Q-NEXT thanks to a combination of recent breakthroughs in our ability to control and manipulate quantum states and Q-NEXT's investment in infrastructure and projects to use entanglement in systems. As we enter Q-NEXT's second year, the Quantum Sensing Thrust is ramping up plans to leverage entanglement and squeezing for advantages at new frontiers of sensitivity, length scale and frequency scale. Read More
-
Quantum innovation at HRL Laboratories
In 1960, Hughes Research Laboratories demonstrated the world’s first laser. It was a breakthrough born of the laboratory’s cutting-edge capabilities in photonics and materials science. Over the last decade, the Malibu-based research lab — now named HRL Laboratories — has been applying those same capabilities to quantum information science. A Q-NEXT industry partner, HRL is helping the center develop the technologies needed to realize quantum communication. Read More
-
Argonne Quantum Foundry renovations begin
The Argonne Quantum Foundry is located in Argonne’s Building 222. Photo: Argonne National Laboratory In August, Argonne National Laboratory began renovations on the Argonne Quantum Foundry, which will support Q-NEXT research in quantum communication, computation, sensing and materials. Located in Argonne’s Building… Read More
-
Workshop on Q-NEXT characterization needs for Argonne user facilities - Sept. 30
On Thursday, Sept. 30, the Q-NEXT Extreme Scale Characterization Thrust will host a workshop on the use of the unique capabilities of the Advanced Photon Source and Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne National Laboratory. The workshop will focus on addressing materials… Read More
-
One year in, Q-NEXT quantum research center is going strong
It’s been a fruitful inaugural year for the Q-NEXT quantum research center, with the start of foundry construction, the launch of a key R&D roadmap, and new science results that will lead to next-generation quantum technologies for science and society. Read More
-
Thaddeus Ladd collaborates on quantum communication for Q-NEXT
As a collaborator and co-design engineer within Q-NEXT, Thaddeus Ladd of HRL Laboratories helps advance new materials for quantum science, develops simulations for future quantum networks, and provides the bird's-eye perspective needed to assess how the center's partners can best support the Q-NEXT mission. Read More
-
Katie Sautter: building materials for a quantum future
Postdoctoral researcher Katie Sautter spent years in graduate school mastering a machine that builds bits of matter one atomic layer at a time. Now she wields her considerable skills inventing materials for quantum communication devices at Q-NEXT. Read More
-
Update: spring roadmap workshop
On May 5, nearly 40 members of Q-NEXT and experts from outside companies met for a daylong workshop to create a roadmap for developing quantum interconnects — an R&D path to bring the technology to the public in 10 to 15 years. Read More
-
From atomic manipulation to device integration: progress in the Materials & Integration Thrust
by Mark Eriksson Mark Eriksson As its name emphasizes, the Materials & Integration Thrust (M&I) develops, characterizes and improves materials with a special focus on integration to enable a wide range of goals cutting across nearly all of Q-NEXT. Materials targets in M&I range from… Read More
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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