This week, quantum engineers, theorists, physicists, industry leaders, and researchers will gather for the Chicago Quantum Summit in the growing center of quantum innovation, Chicago.
One of the hottest topics at the two-day summit will be quantum information technology, a field poised to revolutionize communication and computing, with potential applications for everything from medicine and biology to optoelectronics, cryptography, and catalysis.
From revolutionary leaps that could enable a fast, cross-country quantum network and provide an optical-fiber testbed for ultra-secure quantum communications, the UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) is taking a leading role in helping build the quantum future.
Here are a few recent PME-led innovations advancing this groundbreaking field.
New diamond bonding technique a breakthrough for quantum devices
Synthetic diamond is durable, inert, rigid, thermally conductive and chemically well-behaved—an elite material for both quantum and conventional electronics. But there’s one problem. Diamond only likes diamond.
It’s homoepitaxial, meaning it only grows on other diamonds, and integrating diamond into quantum or conventional computers, quantum sensors, cellphones, or other devices would mean sacrificing the diamond’s full potential or using large, expensive chunks of the precious material.
A paper recently published in Nature Communications from UChicago PME’s High Lab and Argonne National Laboratory has solved a major hurdle facing researchers working with diamond by creating a novel way of bonding diamonds directly to materials that integrate easily with either quantum or conventional electronics.
With this technique, the team directly bonded diamond with materials including silicon, fused silica, sapphire, thermal oxide, and lithium niobate without an intermediary substance to act as “glue.” Instead of the several-hundred microns thick bulk diamonds typically used to study quantum qubits, the team bonded crystalline membranes as thin as 100 nanometers while still maintaining a spin coherence suitable for advanced quantum applications.
Quantum research paves the way toward efficient, ultra-high-density optical memory storage
As our digital world generates massive amounts of data — more than 2 quintillion bytes of new content each day — yesterday’s storage technologies are quickly reaching their limits. Optical memory devices, which use light to read and write data, offer the potential of durable, fast and energy-efficient storage.
Now, researchers at UChicago PME and Argonne have proposed a new type of memory, in which optical data is transferred from a rare earth element embedded within a solid material to a nearby quantum defect.
Their analysis of how such a technology could work was published in Physical Review Research.
Dual-species Rydberg interactions for entanglement and a new generation of quantum processors
Two years ago, researchers at UChicago PME created a hybrid array of neutral atoms of two different species for the first time. They used optical tweezers, or highly focused laser beams, to hold the atoms in place. By demonstrating independent control of the two species in the same array, the researchers ushered in a new breadth of opportunities for quantum processing.
In September of this year, a new paper published in Nature Physics built upon the work. The team from the Bernien Lab, led by UChicago PME Asst. Prof. Hannes Bernien, has taken the next critical step of demonstrating quantum entanglement between the two different elements using Rydberg interactions. Additionally, by leveraging this entanglement, they showed and benchmarked quantum non-demolition measurements, a key subroutine required for scaling quantum systems.
New classical algorithm enhances understanding of quantum computing’s future
In an exciting development for quantum computing, researchers from the University of Chicago’s Department of Computer Science, UChicago PME and Argonne have introduced a groundbreaking classical algorithm that simulates Gaussian boson sampling (GBS) experiments. This achievement not only helps clarify the complexities of current quantum systems but also represents a significant step forward in our understanding of how quantum and classical computing can work together.
The research just appeared in the prominent Nature Physics Journal this past June.
New method of creating quantum dots solves integration challenge
Creating new quantum technologies has historically been a trade-off, with researchers often forced to choose between building a sensitive device or a robust one.
Spin defects inside diamonds and other crystals make ideal qubits – the building block of quantum devices. However, if the defect is too deep inside the crystal, it’s harder to integrate the qubit into the device. If the defect is too close to the material’s surface, it’s vulnerable to all sorts of electric and magnetic noise, reducing the qubit’s effectiveness.
A paper recently published in ACS Nano has found a solution to this longstanding problem. In the paper, a UChicago PME-led team of researchers from UChicago, Argonne and University of Illinois Chicago used defect-embedded colloidal nanocrystals to create a perfect mixture of tiny solids in solution. It’s a material in which the qubits are both close to the surface and protected from noise – a material both sensitive and robust.
Learn more about Quantum Science and Engineering at UChicago PME