As Q-NEXT approaches its five-year anniversary, we capture a dozen of the collaboration’s many outstanding research results. In quantum materials, communication, sensing and computing, Q-NEXT is advancing technologies that are expected to change how we exchange information.

The results below showcase cross-institutional and cross-disciplinary collaboration, fulfilling the Q-NEXT mission to further the science of distributing quantum information, whether across a computer chip or a continent.

1. A new platform for customizable quantum devices

Researchers at MIT, the University of Chicago and Columbia University demonstrate how chromium-based molecular qubits can be finely tuned over a broad spectrum by adjusting the ligand field strength.

2. Researchers set record by preserving quantum states for more than 5 seconds

A University of Chicago and Argonne team achieve a record-setting qubit lifetime, reading out their silicon-carbide qubit on demand and keeping the quantum state intact for over five seconds.

 

3. A mathematical shortcut for determining quantum information lifetimes

Scientists at the University of Chicago, Argonne, Tohoku University in Japan and Ajou University in Korea publish an equation for approximating the coherence time for 12,000 different compounds, enabling researchers to estimate the materials’ coherence times in an instant.

 

4. A one-stop shop for quantum sensing materials

University of Chicago and Argonne scientists create tunable, transferable diamond membranes that can be integrated into quantum devices.

5. Stability in asymmetry: Scientists extend qubit lifetimes

A team of researchers at Argonne , MIT, Northwestern University, the University of Chicago and the University of Glasgow demonstrate longer coherence times in a molecular qubit by altering the crystal’s structure to be less symmetrical, achieving a coherence time of 10 microseconds, compared to the 2-microsecond coherence time of a molecular qubit in a symmetrical crystal host.

6. New quantum sensing technique reveals magnetic connections

Focusing on a nitrogen vacancy center in diamond, scientists at Princeton University and the University of Wisconsin–Madison develop and demonstrate a new technique for teasing out whether magnetic fields picked up by multiple quantum sensors are correlated or independent.

7. Argonne, Sandia scientists create qubits using precision tools of nanotechnology

Researchers at Argonne, HRL, Sandia National Laboratories and the University of Glasgow demonstrate a method for implanting qubits in silicon carbide with extreme precision and provide analysis on how silicon carbide responds at the atomic scale to the qubits’ implantation.

8. A promising pairing: Scientists demonstrate new combination of materials for quantum science

Stanford scientists integrate diamond and thin-film lithium niobate onto a single chip and demonstrate the efficient transfer of photons between them.

9. Resurrecting niobium

A team at the University of Chicago, Fermilab, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University fabricate a trilayer niobium Josephson junction for quantum devices and achieve a coherence time 150 times longer than its best-performing niobium predecessors.

10. X-ray imagery of vibrating diamond opens avenues for quantum sensing

After using the Advanced Photon Source to take X-ray images of diamond undergoing pulsed, microscopic strains, scientists at Cornell University, Argonne and Purdue University, define the mathematical relationship between diamond’s strain and spin.

11. Stanford scientists bring crystal clarity to diamond’s quantum signals

The group at Stanford University and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory link the atomic-scale structure of silicon vacancy centers in diamond to their quantum properties.

12. Scientists give big boost to signals from tin-based qubits

In a collaboration between Stanford University, Sandia National Laboratories and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, scientists boost the signal of a tin vacancy qubit  reading its spin state with an impressive 87% accuracy and in a single shot.