quantum sensing
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The breakthrough quantum sensor that sees inside your cells, with Peter Maurer
From the Big Brains podcast: University of Chicago's Peter Maurer talks about how he and his colleagues made the breakthrough discovery of turning a protein found in living cells into a first-of-its-kind biological qubit. He also chats about how quantum systems could be used detect diseases earlier and track how they evolve in our bodies. Read More
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Resetting the spin
Researchers at Cornell improve tiny diamond-based quantum sensors by using light to reset their internal spins, making them much more sensitive. The advance could lead to better quantum gyroscopes and ultraprecise motion sensors. Read More
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Top 10 Breakthroughs of the Year in physics for 2025 revealed
From Physics World: University of Chicago's David Awschalom and Peter Maurer are on Physics World’s top 10 breakthroughs of the year for designing a protein qubit that can be used as a magnetic field sensor inside living cells. Read More
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When will quantum technologies become part of everyday life?
From the Chicago Quantum Exchange: In a new paper, scientists from UChicago and universities in the US and EU look to computing’s past to chart quantum’s future. Their conclusion: the technology is maturing rapidly, and the next challenges are related to scaling. Read More
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Simulating magnetic interactions of atomic qubits
Researchers introduce new computational tools that can reconstruct the magnetic interactions of atoms close to spin defects using only short measurements that take hours instead of days, enabling faster use of atomic qubits for quantum sensing. Read More
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Leading quantum at an inflection point
From MIT: Danna Freedman is the faculty director of the nascent MIT Quantum Initiative, or QMIT. In this new role, Freedman is giving shape to an ambitious effort to apply quantum breakthroughs to the most consequential challenges in science, technology, industry and national security. Read More
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Waveguides for hybrid quantum systems
Scientists build small lithium niobate waveguides that carry sound waves and demonstrate that they can convert electrical signals into guided sound waves very efficiently — an important step toward building hybrid quantum systems. Read More
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Scientists program cells to create biological qubit in multidisciplinary breakthrough
From the University of Chicago: Researchers have designed protein qubits that can be produced by cells naturally, opening possibilities for precision measurements of tissues, single cells, or even individual molecules. Read More
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Building a quantum powerhouse in the US Midwest
From the Physics World podcast: Q-NEXT Director David Awschalom and Intersect Illinois Chief Quantum Officer Preeti Chalsani talk about how Illinois is establishing itself as a burgeoning hub for quantum innovation, along with neighboring regions in Wisconsin and Indiana. Read More
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Metasurfaces for quantum communication and sensing
Scientists develop an ultrathin device — a metasurface — that controls light in ways that are important for quantum communication and sensing. The design works at telecom wavelengths, reaches speeds over 1 GHz, and can be manufactured using modern foundry-scale methods. 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