PPPL unveils new laboratory space to advance quantum information science

On March 11, PPPL opened its new Quantum Diamond Lab, a space devoted to studying and refining the processes involved in using plasma, the electrically charged fourth state of matter, to create high-quality diamond material for quantum information science applications.

Martinez-Rincon Elected Vice Chair of QED-C Committee

Julian Martinez-Rincon, a quantum scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, has been elected vice chair of the Standards & Performance Metrics Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) of the Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C).

Distinguished Researcher Chosen as Editor-in-Chief to Lead APL Quantum, a New Open-Access Journal from AIP Publishing

AIP Publishing is thrilled to announce the appointment of Ortwin Hess as the founding editor-in-chief of APL Quantum, its newest open-access journal, which seeks to cultivate groundbreaking research in both fundamental and applied quantum science. Hess brings a lifetime of scientific experience and insight in nearly all aspects of quantum science and as editor-in-chief, he will lead the journal as it begins accepting submissions later in 2023 and prepares to publish in 2024.

Researchers build a blueprint for a diverse quantum workforce

The emerging field of quantum science is adding new dimensions to the age-old question: “What do you want to do when you grow up?” In the ever-expanding field of quantum science, Virginia Tech is working to ensure learning opportunities grow just as fast. One of only a handful of higher education institutions to offer experiential quantum training, Virginia Tech is now working with historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to meet the growing demand for a quantum-trained workforce.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Plans to Deploy First IBM Quantum System One on a University Campus

Today, it was announced that Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will become the first university in the world to house an IBM Quantum System One. The IBM quantum computer, intended to be operational by January of 2024, will serve as the foundation of a new IBM Quantum Computational Center in partnership with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). By partnering, RPI’s vision is to greatly enhance the educational experiences and research capabilities of students and researchers at RPI and other institutions, propel the Capital Region into a top location for talent, and accelerate New York’s growth as a technology epicenter.

The ‘breath’ between atoms — a new building block for quantum technology

University of Washington researchers have discovered they can detect atomic “breathing,” or the mechanical vibration between two layers of atoms, by observing the type of light those atoms emitted when stimulated by a laser. The sound of this atomic “breath” could help researchers encode and transmit quantum information.

FSU announces bold investments in quantum science and engineering

Florida State University will dedicate more than $20 million to quantum science and engineering over the next three years, funding that will support hiring at least eight new faculty members, equipment and dedicated space in the university’s Interdisciplinary Research and Commercialization Building, and seed money for a new program focused on this emerging field. FSU President Richard McCullough announced the investments at the first day of the university’s Quantum Science and Engineering Symposium last week.

Five Ways QSA is Advancing Quantum Computing

The Quantum Systems Accelerator has issued an impact report that details progress made since the center launched in 2020. Highlights include a record-setting quantum sensor that could be used to hunt dark matter, a machine learning algorithm to correct qubit errors in real time, and the first observation of several exotic states of matter using a 256-atom quantum device.

Microscopy Images Could Lead to New Ways to Control Excitons for Quantum Computing

Excitons are drawing attention as possible quantum bits (qubits) in tomorrow’s quantum computers and are central to optoelectronics and energy-harvesting processes. However, these charge-neutral quasiparticles, which exist in semiconductors and other materials, are notoriously difficult to confine and manipulate. Now, for the first time, Berkeley Lab researchers have created and directly observed highly localized excitons confined in simple stacks of atomically thin materials. The work confirms theoretical predictions and opens new avenues for controlling excitons with custom-built materials.

Entangled photons to take pictures in the dark

During photosynthesis, a chemical reaction jumpstarted by sunlight breaks down chemicals into the food plants need to repair themselves and to grow. But as researchers attempt to better understand photosynthesis, they have hit a roadblock when it comes to being able to see the fundamental structures and processes in a plant.

Cleveland Clinic and IBM Begin Installation of IBM Quantum System One

Cleveland Clinic and IBM have begun deployment of the first private sector onsite, IBM-managed quantum computer in the United States. The IBM Quantum System is to be located on Cleveland Clinic’s main campus in Cleveland.

The first quantum computer in healthcare, anticipated to be completed in early 2023, is a key part of the two organizations’10-year partnership aimed at fundamentally advancing the pace of biomedical research through high-performance computing. Announced in 2021, the Cleveland Clinic-IBM Discovery Accelerator is a joint center that leverages Cleveland Clinic’s medical expertise with the technology expertise of IBM, including its leadership in quantum computing.

Boron Nitride with a Twist Could Lead to New Way to Make Qubits

Achieving scalability in quantum processors, sensors, and networks requires novel devices that are easily manipulated between two quantum states. A team led by Berkeley Lab researchers has developed a method, using a solid-state “twisted” crystalline layered material, which gives rise to tiny light-emitting points that can be switched on and off with the simple application of an external voltage. The research could lead to a new way to make quantum bits, or qubits, which encode information in quantum computers.

Chicago Quantum Exchange welcomes six new partners highlighting quantum technology solutions, from Chicago and beyond

The Chicago Quantum Exchange (CQE), a growing intellectual hub for the research and development of quantum technology, has added several new corporate partners: State Farm, QuEra Computing Inc., PsiQuantum, qBraid, and QuantCAD LLC. In addition, Le Lab Quantique (LLQ), a Paris-based think tank, will join as a nonprofit partner.

UAH student overcomes setbacks of war to solve a difficult quantum optical system problem

In work applicable to super-fast quantum computing and quantum optics, undergraduate research by a recent graduate in physics and mathematics at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) has simplified a difficult mathematical problem to further illuminate the behavior of two-level quantum optical systems.

NSF funds training program to boost regional quantum workforce

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is investing $3 million in a new graduate student training program for aspiring scientists and educators who want to explore careers in quantum science at St. Louis-area research laboratories, private companies and other facilities.Sophia Hayes, vice dean of graduate education and professor of chemistry, and Kater Murch, professor of physics, both in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St.

Elucidating the law of vortex diffusion in quantum turbulence

A research group of Professor Makoto Tsubota and Specially Appointed Assistant Professor Satoshi Yui, both from the Graduate School of Science and the Nambu Yoichiro Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Osaka Metropolitan University, in cooperation with their colleagues from Florida State University and Keio University, conducted a systematic numerical study of vortex diffusion in quantum turbulence in superfluid helium-4 (He II) at extremely low temperatures, near absolute zero (−273°C), and compared the results with experimental observations.

Fermilab engineers develop new control electronics for quantum computers that improve performance, cut costs

Quantum computing experiments now have a new control and readout electronics option that will significantly improve performance while replacing cumbersome and expensive systems. Developed by a team of engineers at Fermilab in collaboration with the University of Chicago, the Quantum Instrumentation Control Kit, or QICK for short, is easily scalable.

See how quantum ‘weirdness’ is improving electron microscopes

Two new advances from the lab of University of Oregon physicist Ben McMorran are refining the microscopes. Both come from taking advantage of a fundamental principle of quantum mechanics: that an electron can behave simultaneously like a wave and a particle. It’s one of many examples of weird, quantum-level quirks in which subatomic particles often behave in ways that seem to violate the laws of classical physics.

Quantum, Classical Computing Combine to Tackle Tough Optimization Problems

A research team led by the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) was recently selected for second-phase funding of a $9.2 million project aimed at demonstrating a hybrid computing system that will combine the advantages of classical computing with those of quantum computing to tackle some of the world’s most difficult optimization problems.

New quantum research gives insights into how quantum light can be mastered

A team of scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory propose that modulated quantum metasurfaces can control all properties of photonic qubits, a breakthrough that could impact the fields of quantum information, communications, sensing and imaging, as well as energy and momentum harvesting. The results of their study were released yesterday in the journal Physical Review Letters, published by the American Physical Society.

Researchers Find Semimetal That Clings to a Quantum Precipice

In an open access paper published in Science Advances, Johns Hopkins physicists and colleagues at Rice University, the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), present experimental evidence of naturally occurring quantum criticality in a material.

A “Horizon Strategy” Framework for Science and Technology Policy

The current U.S. innovation model has in multiple respects fallen short in the face of today’s technology competition challenges. MITRE calls for a national-level effort between government, industry, and academia to address the most critical S&T priorities.

Boosting Fiber Optics Communications with Advanced Quantum-Enhanced Receiver

Fiber optic technology is the holy grail of high-speed, long-distance telecommunications. Still, with the continuing exponential growth of internet traffic, researchers are warning of a capacity crunch. In AVS Quantum Science, researchers show how quantum-enhanced receivers could play a critical role in addressing this challenge. The scientists developed a method to enhance receivers based on quantum physics properties to dramatically increase network performance while significantly reducing the error bit rate and energy consumption.

Nation’s first quantum startup accelerator, Duality, launches at the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center and the Chicago Quantum Exchange

The University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the Chicago Quantum Exchange today announced the launch of Duality, the first accelerator program in the nation that is exclusively dedicated to startup companies focused on quantum science and technology—a rapidly emerging area that is poised to drive transformative advances across multiple industries.

Quantum material’s subtle spin behavior proves theoretical predictions

Using complementary computing calculations and neutron scattering techniques, researchers from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge and Lawrence Berkeley national laboratories and the University of California, Berkeley, discovered the existence of an elusive type of spin dynamics in a quantum mechanical system.

Twistoptics—A New Way to Control Optical Nonlinearity

Columbia Engineering researchers report that they developed a new, efficient way to modulate and enhance an important type of nonlinear optical process: optical second harmonic generation—where two input photons are combined in the material to produce one photon with twice the energy—from hexagonal boron nitride through micromechanical rotation and multilayer stacking. Their work is the first to exploit the dynamically tunable symmetry of 2D materials for nonlinear optical applications.

Applying Quantum Computing to a Particle Process

A team of researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) used a quantum computer to successfully simulate an aspect of particle collisions that is typically neglected in high-energy physics experiments, such as those that occur at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider.

Columbia Engineers First to Observe Avalanches in Nanoparticles

Columbia Engineering researchers report the first nanomaterial that demonstrates “photon avalanching,” a process that is unrivaled in its combination of extreme nonlinear optical behavior and efficiency. The realization of photon avalanching in nanoparticle form opens up a host of sought-after applications, from real-time super-resolution optical microscopy, precise temperature and environmental sensing, and infrared light detection, to optical analog-to-digital conversion and quantum sensing.

MITRE Appoints Gerald Gilbert a MITRE Fellow

MITRE named Gerald Gilbert, Ph.D., a MITRE Fellow to expand MITRE’s quantum science initiatives. MITRE Fellows are a select group of preeminent scientists in their fields who lead critically important programs. The MITRE Fellows program has a history of deeply impactful work to the nation and world, including the Global Positioning System (GPS) and adaptive signal processing.

Harnessing Quantum Properties to Create Single-Molecule Devices

Researchers, led by Columbia Engineering Prof Latha Venkataraman, report today that they have discovered a new chemical design principle for exploiting destructive quantum interference. They used their approach to create a six-nanometer single-molecule switch where the on-state current is more than 10,000 times greater than the off-state current—the largest change in current achieved for a single-molecule circuit to date.

Quantum X-ray Microscope Underway at Brookhaven Lab

UPTON, NY—Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have begun building a quantum-enhanced x-ray microscope at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II). This groundbreaking microscope, supported by the Biological and Environmental Research progam at DOE’s Office of Science, will enable researchers to image biomolecules like never before.

Quantifying Quantumness: A Mathematical Project ‘of Immense Beauty’

Large objects behave in accordance with the classical laws of mechanics formulated by Sir Isaac Newton and small ones are governed by quantum mechanics, where an object can behave as both a wave and a particle. The boundary between the classical and quantum realms has always been of great interest. Research reported in AVS Quantum Science, considers the question of what makes something “more quantum” than another — is there a way to characterize “quantumness”?