June 1, 2025, Science Highlights

Controlling the makeup of semiconductor materials for quantum technologies

Nuclear spin engineering for quantum information science

Journal of Materials Research (2025)

Semiconductors are essential to today’s technology, and they’ve recently become important building blocks for quantum devices. Tiny spin systems inside them — such as defects or quantum dots — act as qubits that connect with nearby nuclear spins.

The specific types of nuclear isotopes in the material affect how well these qubits work and can be qubits themselves. Some isotopes create magnetic noise that can harm the qubit’s performance, while others might be useful for storing quantum information.

In this paper, researchers highlight how controlling the isotopic makeup of semiconductor materials is becoming a key part of designing effective quantum technologies.

The paper authors are Jonathan Marcks, Benjamin Pingault, Jiefei Zhang, Cyrus Zeledon, F. Joseph Heremans and David Awschalom, conducting work at Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago.

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September 1, 2026, Science Highlights
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August 21, 2026, Science Highlights
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August 18, 2026, News and Features
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August 11, 2026, News and Features
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August 4, 2026, In the News
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July 28, 2026, Science Highlights
Color centers in high-purity diamond

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July 13, 2026, News and Features
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