#quantumsensors

Great Lakes Crystal Technologies GLCT increases quantum diamond supply chains for research and innovative applications.

Diamonds, known for their flawless sparkle, have long been associated with wealth and beauty. The rapidly emerging field of quantum information technology values diamonds for their flaws. Qubits with these planned imperfections, called “nitrogen-vacancy defects” or vacancy centers, will fuel the next generation of quantum sensors, computers, and networks.

Today, the Midwest is pushing to turn these minor faults into a lucrative industrial sector. A diverse ecosystem of entrepreneurs, worldwide leaders, and academic institutions is building one of the first integrated quantum diamond supply chains in the US, focusing on Illinois-Wisconsin-Indiana. As the “Quantum Prairie,” this project aims to bridge mass-market production and lab breakthroughs.

Why Qubits Love Diamonds

In quantum mechanics, qubits are notoriously brittle and easily upset. Diamond-based qubits are durable, unlike many quantum devices that operate below space temperature.

The toughest natural material on Earth, diamond lattice, shields defective qubits. Diamond's electrical insulation blocks noise and dissipates heat. Due to their structural durability, diamond qubits can store quantum information at higher temperatures and for longer periods than other systems.

Diamonds are ideal for quantum sensing due of these features. These sensors can precisely monitor magnetic fields, revolutionizing mining, navigation, and medical diagnostics. A diamond-based quantum sensor may attach a magnetic atom to a pharmaceutical molecule to track its travel through a human cell.

Ultimate Semiconductor Challenge

Diamond is the “ultimate semiconductor” outside of quantum applications, say experts. Diamond outperforms silicon in practically every technical parameter, including power efficiency, physical resistance, and reliability, but silicon is cheap and abundant, thus silicon underpins modern electronics.

However, quality and cost have generally prevented diamond adoption. Creating diamonds with quantum-technology-specific vacancy centers is expensive and complicated. Great Lakes Crystal Technologies (GLCT) vice president of research and development Paul Quayle says, “the quality of the material just isn't high enough to exploit it for the performance that you need.”

A Manufacturing Ecosystem Collaboration

Five key Chicago Quantum Exchange (CQE) corporate partners are addressing these obstacles with their respective strengths across the production lifecycle:

The first step in making quantum-grade diamonds is done by Great Lakes Crystal Technologies (GLCT) and WD Advanced Materials. WD Advanced Materials makes diamond blocks with “pink” hues to show nitrogen-vacancy problems in qubits.

K1 Semiconductor: A University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering business that uses a revolutionary “spalling” technology. Splitting a diamond substrate into ultra-thin layers 20 times boosts cost-effectiveness and scalability.

staC12: Another UChicago PME, staC12, makes thin-film diamonds for sapphire and silicon. Since “all of modern technology is made of material heterostructures,” integrating diamond with other materials is difficult.

Applied Materials: A global leader in materials engineering, Applied Materials provides the industrial infrastructure to incorporate diamond hearts into optical and electrically communicating electronic devices.

Synergy is already paying off for these guys. K1 Semiconductor and GLCT are testing a cycle in which GLCT grows diamond in bulk, K1 divides it into wafers, and GLCT grows more diamond using the templates.

The Bloch: National Scaling

This regional program centers on the CQE-led Bloch Quantum Tech Hub. The Bloch is competing for federal funds to build a scalable quantum supply chain after the Economic Development Administration named it a US Tech Hub.

Lack of a large-scale domestic supply chain is a problem in the U.S. quantum environment, says CQE director David Awschalom. By connecting innovators and producers, the Bloch hopes to avoid “throttled by material scarcity” in the transfer from lab physics to field sensors.

Future of Quantum Prairie

As the technology improves, quantum computer and communication applications are expected, even as diamond-based quantum sensors near commercialization. Diamond will be the “second implementation” of quantum computing, when quantum systems transcend present technology, according to WD Advanced Materials CTO John Ciraldo.

SMSPDs are superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors. Fermilab made a huge advance in developing quantum sensors to track high-energy particles and discover dark matter. SMSPDs, superconducting microwire single-photon detectors, intrigue particle physics researchers. This landmark study addresses them.

Technology: Why SMSPDs Matter

SMSPDs, ultrasensitive quantum sensors, are improving particle physics timing and detection. Future accelerator-based investigations that require precise particle identification and tracking may require these features.

Compared to older sensors, the study shows significant technology improvement. Modern microwires have a larger active area than superconducting nanowire single photon detectors. They are better for high-intensity colliders because their increased surface area makes tracking charged particles easier.

Sensor fabrication has also been optimized. Recent work at the CERN accelerator test beam facility used sensors made of thicker tungsten silicide sheet than before. The main premise is that a larger wire may absorb more energy from high-energy charged particles, improving time resolution and detection efficiency.

CERN Experiments and Muon Detection

The Fermilab study proved SMSPDs could detect single high-energy charged particles like protons, electrons, and pions. The CERN study builds on that. The new studies went farther by evaluating muon detection efficiency for the first time.

Muons are particularly popular among scientists worldwide. These particles allow scientists to study fundamental forces and particles better than other leptons due to their unique properties and 200 times heavier mass than electrons. The detection of muons with superconducting microwire single-photon detectors is a major advance for global consortia investigating a high-energy muon collider.

In future high-energy collider experiments, millions of events per second are expected. To handle this large amount of data, detectors must follow particles with increasing precision in space and time, and SMSPD sensors are suited for this.

Looking for Dark Matter

Even while tracking particles in colliders is the major goal, SMSPDs are equally vital in dark matter research. In the Journal of Instrumentation, project scientists presented the first full temperature-dependent analysis of an SMSPD sensor array. The array's suggested use in low-background dark matter detection tests reflects this new technology's “rapid pace” of development.

Cooperative Work

These quantum sensors were developed through Fermilab-led collaboration. Important allies:

Caltech

NASA's JPL

Geneva University

The CERN research team included many scientists. Photographed at the test beam were Cristián Peña, Thomas Sievert, Manish Sahu, Alex Albert, Elise Sledge, Adi Bornheim, Christina Wang, Artur Apresyan, Shuoxing Wu, Towsif Taher, Guillermo Reales Gutierrez, and Boris According to Fermilab and Caltech scientist Si Xie, these devices can promote new physics findings, while Fermilab scientist Cristián Peña underlines considerable improvement from initial data.

Fermilab's Broader Quantum Ecosystem

The SMSPD investigation is part of Fermilab's comprehensive AI and quantum research efforts. More recent advances have strengthened this mission:

The Quantum Science Center and Quantum Systems Accelerator partnered to operate cryoelectronic ion traps at Fermilab and MIT Lincoln Laboratory, enabling scalable quantum computing.

AI & Machine Learning: Fermilab researchers developed an open-source neural network enhancement framework. This method allows hardware to make rapid judgments to prioritize enormous volumes of data from ambitious physics experiments.

Laser laboratory construction for MAGIS-100, the world's largest vertical atom interferometer, is complete. The 100-meter equipment detects the smallest signals from the universe's farthest reaches to identify new physics phenomena. In conclusion

Quantum Metrology News

A novel, effective method for determining quantum sensor precision limitations has been announced by an international team of researchers, advancing quantum metrology. A long-sought mathematical shortcut for estimating the Holevo Cramér-Rao bound (HCRB), a basic restriction that controls how correctly we can quantify various quantum physical phenomena, is found in Communications Physics.

Chang Shoukang, Marco G. Genoni, and Francesco Albarelli from Milan, Parma, and Scuola Normale Superiore led the study. Their focus is Gaussian states, “ubiquitous in quantum science”. These states are essential for describing physical systems in atomic ensembles, optics, and optomechanics, which underpin quantum research.

The Quantum Precision Challenge

Engineering is often needed to increase classical measurement precision. However, quantum physics places tremendous restrictions. Quantum metrology investigates these boundaries to establish a probe's maximum sensitivity.

Estimating photon phase and loss simultaneously causes “measurement incompatibility”. The HCRB considers the possibility that measuring one attribute will disturb the other.

The HCRB is important, but physicists who investigate infinite-dimensional systems like light's continuous variables have struggled to calculate it. A tedious optimization technique over complex "Hermitian operators" made the conventional method impossible to appraise for various real-world circumstances.

New phase-space solution

Shoukang, Genoni, and Albarelli's breakthrough requires a complete rethinking. Instead of using infinite-dimensional operators, the scientists calculated the HCRB using the first and second moments of a quantum state and their parametric derivatives.

The researchers converted the problem into a semidefinite program to provide a generic and effective framework that can be run on regular computers. In their abstract, the scientists claimed that “this approach provides conceptual insight into multiparameter estimation” and allows “practical applications of the HCRB” in labs worldwide. This “phase-space formulation” shows a remarkable physical truth: assessing these ultimate precision bounds only requires quadratic-order observables.

Validating the Method

The researchers demonstrated their new tool in two complex scenarios where the system's status changes multiple times:

Simultaneous Phase and Loss Estimation: Quantum-enhanced interferometry requires researchers to know both signal timing and attenuation.

Joint Displacement and Squeezing: Complex sensing devices change quantum states by joint displacement and squeeze.

The new SDP architecture achieved previously unattainable accuracy bounds in both scenarios. Their methodology is flexible enough to yield other notable limits, such as the right (RLD) and symmetric (SLD) logarithmic derivative bounds, the researchers noted.

Global Cooperation

Several prestigious institutions collaborated on the project. Chang Shoukang performed precise analytical and numerical computations, while Francesco Albarelli conceived the research and provided first findings. Marco G. Genoni simplified complex derivations.

Scientists can now quickly access the team's findings. The study's Python code is published as a Jupyter notebook on GitHub, allowing other physicists to replicate and use the approach.

Major financial organizations, including China Scholarship Council, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action, and Next Generation EU project through NQSTI, supported the work.

Impact on Future Tech

The work is theoretically groundbreaking, but its applications are invaluable. By simplifying quantum sensor sensitivity computation, the work enables “super-resolution” devices. Localization microscopy, quantum magnetometry for medical imaging, and quantum LIDAR for range and velocity estimates may improve.

China 15th Five-Year Plan

The 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030) positions quantum technology as a key driver of economic growth in China. In a strategic shift from academic research to commercial implementation, the new strategy names quantum technology the leader of seven “future industries” that will drive economic growth. This elevates the sector from laboratory successes to robust commercialization supported by large state investment and tailored regulatory assistance.

Rapidly Growing Market

China's recent market performance shows its quantum ambitions. Quantum computing alone reached RMB 11.56 billion (US$1.61 billion) by 2025, expanding 30% yearly. Companies in the space increased 40% from 93 in 2023 to 153 in 2024.

This surge is due to government resource distribution changes. The 15th Five-Year Plan prioritizes commercialization through government procurement, manufacturing subsidies, and large-scale application deployments over university research grants. Three regional quantum-focused funds received RMB 121.8 billion (US$17.5 billion) from the National Venture Guidance Fund to achieve these targets.

The Three Quantum Tech Pillars

China has three quantum subsectors with different maturity levels:

Quantum communications dominates the business with 60% of revenue. China's 10,000-kilometer Beijing-Shanghai trunk line and 2016 Micius satellite are the world's longest operational quantum backbone and sole quantum communications satellite. Quantum encryption allows ICBC to remotely transport data and make money.

Hardware achievements include the 107-qubit Zuchongzhi 3.2 superconducting processor and 504-qubit Tianyan-504 cluster system. Quantum computing is the fastest-growing segment, anticipated to account for 41% of the quantum market by 2025.

International commercialization of Hanyuan-1 neutral-atom quantum computers began in 2025.

Despite its early commercialization, quantum sensing is utilized in high-tech production. CATL and Gotion High-Tech, battery giants, use quantum sensors to assure manufacturing quality.

Geographic Innovation Clusters

Four geographic hubs with expertise have converged industry:

Hefei, China's "quantum capital," has USTC and Origin Quantum. Superconducting computer manufacturing and advanced R&D remain there.

Beijing: The national standards and policy center, Beijing emphasizes quantum sensing and measurement.

Guangzhou and Shenzhen: In addition to having the first photonic quantum computer production line, Shenzhen and Guangdong prioritize commercial products and large-scale manufacturing.

Shanghai & Yangtze River Delta: The cluster emphasizes financial services and industrial applications due to the region's banks and innovative manufacturing.

Foreign Players' Opportunities and Challenges

Foreign involvement is nuanced in the 15th Five-Year Plan. The amended Foreign Investment Encouraged Catalogue provides reduced corporate tax rates and tariff exemptions for foreign-invested enterprises for quantum computing research and development starting in February 2026.

However, “bifurcation risks” persist. Foreign providers can use healthcare and banking apps, but government and defense sectors are mainly blocked. Western export restrictions on advanced components have promoted Chinese “domestic substitution”.

The supply chain gaps where multinational enterprises can make a difference remain. Chinese expertise in cryogenic control systems, high-end measuring tools, and Helium-3 remains poor. Software and algorithm development allows multinational companies to license technology to Chinese industrial customers without shipping hardware.

Close Window

While domestic “state-supported champions” like China Telecom Quantum Group and QuantumCTek quickly improve, experts warn the window for entering China's quantum sector is shrinking. A major change is that the 15th Five-Year Plan makes quantum a competitive industry necessity rather than just research.

British Columbia Tech News

The BC government will invest £1.1 million ($1.9 million CAD) in University of Victoria technology and research facilities. This strategic investment funds 10 groundbreaking clean technology, biological science, and quantum computing projects. The province intends to boost economic growth and train workers for new sectors by building modern infrastructure. The project highlights UVic's quantum physics pioneering work in subatomic behavior to improve data processing and drug development. This funding strengthens the innovation ecosystem by connecting university academics with corporate and community partners.

The news coincided with Quantum Days 2026 in Victoria, which drew hundreds of experts from three continents and seven nations. The investment supports British Columbia's “Look West” policy, a long-term economic initiative to boost the economy and create jobs.

Strengthening Quantum Ecosystem

UVic's quantum physics leadership is the main focus of this new funding. The investment should provide scientists with the tools and infrastructure they need to study and manage the universe.

Quantum research studies subatomic activities, particles smaller than atoms that defy ordinary physics. With these “unusual behaviors,” UVic researchers are trying to construct quantum materials, computers, and sensors.

Thomas Baker, Canada Research Chair in Quantum Computing for Modelling Molecules and Materials, noted the area's revolutionary nature. Baker added that quantum has immense potential to solve practical problems and enhance basic science, and that provincial support is essential to keep students, industry partners, and the academic community interested.

Real-World Effects: Drug Development to Climate Change

Tech changes affect the world outside the lab. It says the $1.9 million infrastructural support may lead to:

Data processing: Examining difficult research data quickly. Medical advances: Accelerating medication and treatment development.

Sustainability: lowering computing energy for a “cleaner future”.

The provincial fund focuses new manufacturing, climate and ecological science, and Earth-observation technologies for the future, beyond quantum research.

UVic “Convening Hub”

Community partners, business, and government have increasingly gathered at the University of Victoria. Lisa Kalynchuk, UVic vice-president of research and innovation, calls the institution a “convening hub” for Indigenous and community partners.

Kalynchuk added, “This investment advances the university’s vision of creating a better world through engagement and innovation and helps our internationally recognized researchers continue to lead in their fields.”

Rick Glumac, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence and New Technologies, was at the UVic AMO Lab for the announcement, demonstrating the provincial government's commitment to AI and quantum technologies.

Enhanced Innovation Culture

UVic's latest funding is part of a bigger research endeavor. Some of the university's research ecosystem's recent breakthroughs demonstrate its breadth of expertise. The Knowledge Development Fund helps.

UVic researchers have recently employed supercomputers to solve long-standing astronomical problems, including red giant star formation. Medical teams may deploy humanoid, sympathetic robots, according to studies. Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs) cognitive effects are being studied by students to improve sports health.

Looking Ahead

The $1.9 million investment ensures that British Columbia trains the next generation of “quantum experts” by providing top-notch facilities for researchers and students. UVic and the B.C. government will continue to collaborate on regional scientific and economic development as the province pursues its “Look West” initiative.

Sloan Fellowship Award

Two notable academic members of the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME) were awarded 2026 Sloan Research Fellows, one of the most distinguished early-career scientific awards in the US and Canada. Peter Maurer, Assistant Professor of Molecular Engineering, and Chibueze Amanchukwu, Neubauer Family Assistant Professor, were among 126 outstanding researchers chosen by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for their “outstanding promise” by hand.

The two-year, $75,000 Sloan Research Fellowship supports creative research by young scholars who will lead science. This funding allows UChicago PME grantees latitude to perform high-risk, high-reward research, unlike other federal awards. Because these fellowships are cheaper, Maurer says his team may “try some of our crazier ideas and see where they go”.

Linking Quantum Physics and Life

Peter Maurer's work is important in biophotonics and quantum engineering. His lab aims to develop quantum sensors that can assess biological processes more precisely than current technology. Maurer's work aims to build sensors to monitor molecular-scale biological activity and study quantum system restrictions in “noisy” biological situations.

Quantum physics' precision should be applied to biological complexity, according to Maurer. He claims that his organization is using quantum phenomena to “become part of biology” rather than just observe it. Since life occurs at the molecule length scale, where signals are excellent for quantum sensors but too small for traditional detection, this strategy works effectively.

Quantum sensors can detect nuclear spin density, unlike fluorescent labels, which only display molecular location. These data are crucial for understanding ion transport through cellular channels and protein conformational changes. Maurer's lab created the first protein-based qubit, one of Physics World's top ten physics accomplishments of 2025. Maurer hopes to utilize the Sloan Fellowship to scale these biological qubits into larger quantum arrays, taking use of biology's intrinsic capacity to arrange matter with atomic accuracy, which is harder to achieve with typical quantum platforms.

Maurer pioneered room-temperature qubit quantum control during his doctoral study in physics at Harvard. He also completed a Stanford postdoctoral program under Nobel laureate Steven Chu.

Revolutionizing Energy Storage and Sustainability

Chibueze Amanchukwu's study focuses on clean energy transition challenges, notably how electrolytes, which allow electrical charge to flow in batteries, affect chemical processes during energy conversion and storage. His lab created a “carbon and salt” battery and made significant progress. This new battery technology is safer, cheaper, and more abundant than current lithium-ion batteries.

Beyond hardware innovation, Amanchukwu's group forecasts electrolyte performance and develops future energy system formulations using machine learning methods. Amanchukwu extends battery electrolyte design knowledge to other pressing environmental issues at the “intersection of different fields.” This includes degrading "forever chemicals," or PFAS, and boosting electrochemical carbon dioxide collection and conversion.

Amanchukwu will study electrode-electrolyte interface under the Sloan Fellowship. He wants to give scientists new insights into charging and discharging chemical processes by developing reliable, high-resolution battery monitoring devices. He believes these sensors will be “transformational,” guiding material development and elucidating complex chemical pathways.

Amanchukwu has a PhD in chemical engineering from MIT and a joint post at Argonne. Stanford and Cambridge postdoctoral fellowships are among his credentials. MIT Technology Review's 2024 “Innovators Under 35” list and Chemical & Engineering News' “Talented 12” list are among his many distinctions.

Past Excellence at UChicago PME

University of Connecticut scientist Simone Colombo is conducting a project to revolutionize gas cooling to absolute zero. This ultra-cold quantum degenerate state makes atoms dissolve into a single “super atom” that is sensitive to outside effects. Instead of slow and inefficient cooling methods, Colombo's study uses Rubidium 85 and magnetic fields to bypass evaporation.

This invention will reduce cooling time from 20 seconds to 1 second without losing atoms. Such a development could enhance quantum sensors for geological surveys, deep-sea navigation, and quantum computing. This better method will enable higher repeat rates in lab research and field applications.

A UConn scholar adapts quantum cooling for future technologies

High-stakes quantum physics ends with temperature and speed. University of Connecticut assistant professor of physics Simone Colombo is leading a quantum world research project that could change our interactions. Colombo's unique method to produce quantum degeneracy in less than a second enables hyper-sensitive sensors and complex navigation systems that were previously hindered by ultra-cold gas generation's slow, “one-and-done” nature.

Entering Quantum Kingdom

Colombo's study is relevant only if one understands matter's unusual behavior near absolute zero. We live with gas atoms “bouncing freely through space” in constant motion. When cold to -460 degrees Fahrenheit, these gases enter the quantum degenerate state.

Atoms stop moving at this severe temperatures. Colombo said their lack of motion forces scientists to study them “quantum way” Wave-particle duality, which posits that atoms behave like waves, underpins this transition. As the atom slows, its wavelength increases, creating a “super atom.” In this state, atoms become one entity and lose their individuality.

Current issue: cooling crisis

Though strong, quantum degenerate gases are notoriously difficult to maintain. Now “produced once and then destroyed,” these vapors make field and lab research difficult that relies on regular testing to ensure accuracy.

Current cooling requires two arduous steps:

Researchers use lasers to cool atoms. Laser light absorption and higher-energy photon emission lower atoms' interior temperatures.

Researchers must use evaporative cooling because laser cooling seldom achieves quantum degeneracy. Coffee cools similarly when steam, the hottest molecules, leaks from the mug. Eliminating “hot” atoms lowers the sample's average temperature.

Second stage causes most delay. Evaporative cooling takes 10–20 seconds. Since experiments are repeated, this seems fast yet takes a long time.

The Colombo innovation

The invention of Colombo aims to eliminate evaporation. He used laser cooling to obtain the desired cold state by focusing on Rubidium 85.

Colombo uses a magnetic field to eliminate atom-to-atom interactions in rubidium 85 because to its properties. By “turning off” these interactions, the gas can enter the quantum degenerate state without evaporating “hot” atoms.

The results are amazing. This method should speed up the process 10–100 times by reducing cooling time to less than a second. The experimental trap is more efficient since no atoms escape.

Actual Impact and Defense Interest

This technology's potential is recognized. The DOD has awarded Colombo $607,000 to continue this study. The DOD is interested in quantum sensors' "field applications" that require high-frequency readings that are impossible with current cooling methods.

These “super atoms” make quantum sensors more sensitive to electric, magnetic, and gravitational forces than traditional sensors. This sensitivity allows innovative applications:

Navigation: Improved accuracy for underwater vehicles and remote land locations without GPS.

Geology uses gravitational acceleration to investigate Earth composition. Space Travel: providing precise interstellar long-distance navigation. Quantum Computing: Funding basic research to build more powerful quantum computers.

In conclusion