#quantumstates

PNNL news today

The Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has developed high-purity gas conversion and purification systems for silane and germane, strengthening the nation's technical infrastructure. These two gases are essential to quantum information science and the semiconductor industry.

Strengthening Quantum Supply Chain

Its main purpose is to provide a reliable domestic route for supplies; it reached a milestone in 2026. The US wants to replace commercially available enhanced starting chemicals with device-compatible precursor gases for high-tech production. The DOE Office of Isotope R&D and Production (IRP) manages this project strategically.

Germane and silane are industrial powerhouses, not lab experiments. The semiconductor industry uses them to deposit silicon and germanium thin films, which are vital to computer chips. PNNL protects American research and development from worldwide supply chain uncertainty by providing a domestic source of high-purity gases.

Novel Separation Methods

This breakthrough relies on improved thermal diffusion isotope separation (TDIS) technology. PNNL has created TDIS systems for enriching chlorine and argon, but transitioning to silane and germane presented scientific problems.

Researchers recommended greater study to develop safe and effective systems for these chemicals. The lab's chemical separation skills helped overcome these challenges. Further isotopically enriching these gases is important to meet quantum technology's rigorous standards, where even tiny contaminants might affect quantum states.

Safety and Precision in Engineering

Maintaining these materials requires extreme accuracy. Chemical engineer and project chief investigator Mike Powell called isotopic dilution of increased silicon problematic. Powell stressed that the company needs to “carefully design our systems and handling procedures” to maintain feedstock isotopic purity during silane and germane production.

To reduce the risks of working with automated control systems, PNNL developed safety protocols. These powerful controls monitor hundreds of process variables live. The device promptly informs operators if circumstances depart from precise target values, ensuring feedstock purity and worker safety.

Scientific Discovery Legacy

PNNL aims to address energy resilience and national security challenges with this achievement. Battelle's 1965-founded PNNL uses data science, biology, chemistry, and Earth sciences. The lab is funded by the DOE's Office of Science, the nation's largest fundamental physical science sponsor.

Silane and germane research are high-impact lab projects. PNNL also disclosed many major initiatives in early 2026, including the Genesis AI for Science program, which employs AI to further nuclear and biotechnology research. Six PNNL researchers received DOE Early Career Research Awards, demonstrating the lab's commitment to training future scientists.

Looking Ahead

The success of these purifying methods revolutionizes domestic quantum computing materials. PNNL and DOE are connecting raw enriched chemicals to high-purity gases for device manufacturing to lay the groundwork for future computing and autonomous systems.

This article will explain that silicon vacancy centers enable 1.55 km quantum entanglement, bypassing distance barriers and expediting quantum communication system development.

Harvard and MIT researchers showed a quantum-memory-assisted interferometer in a revolutionary experiment that pushes the “spooky” world of quantum physics to the forefront of observational science. This new technique could enable massive telescope arrays without signal loss, which has plagued astronomers for decades.

The Nature study found that the scientists could measure non-local phase over a 1.55-kilometer fiber link, five times longer than the baseline of the state-of-the-art optical telescope array. By using quantum entanglement to “teleport” light between distant stations, the researchers have overcome a fundamental physical barrier that has long limited the resolution of our most powerful imaging equipment.

Baseline Barrier

Light from numerous physically distant telescopes is integrated by optical interferometry to create a “synthetic aperture”. Size matters in this sector because image resolution is directly related to baseline, or telescope distance. However, lengthier baselines require optical fiber transmission to a central location to combine the light signal.

The researchers found that direct interference is the best observation method for weak optical signals, but exponential signal light attenuation over large distances hinders it. Conventional systems boost signal via local oscillators (LO). Shot noise and vacuum fluctuations, which provide no useful information but obscure distant stars' faint light, often overwhelm these systems.

Quantum Memories, Diamonds

Mikhail Lukin and Pieter-Jan Constant Stas led the Harvard-MIT team to tackle the problem using a quantum network. Their method uses diamond nanophotonic cavities with silicon-vacancy (SiV) centers. remarkable-performance quantum memory, SiVs store and control sensitive quantum states with remarkable fidelity.

Unlike prior all-photonic quantum interferometry attempts, this device uses 29Si nuclear spins, long-lived memory qubits. The scientists can "arm" the interferometer by generating entanglement between two distant stations before measuring light. The stations handle light signals using this “event-ready” entanglement as a shared resource.

Eliminating the “Which-Path” Mystery

The method employs sophisticated quantum steps. The two stations' electron spins are connected in a Mach–Zehnder interferometer to create a Bell state. After then, the more stable nuclear spins store this entanglement.

The stations capture the low light signal replicated in the lab by weak laser pulses by entangled photons and qubits using local quantum processes. Next, photon modes must be erased. Photon-number-resolving detectors and a local oscillator hide the “which-path” information, so the system “forgets” which station the photon hit.

This erasure preserves the light's differential phase information, which is imprinted on the entangled nuclear spins. Finally, researchers use non-destructive, non-local photon heralding. Without removing the signal photon's phase information, they may measure the electron spin parity at both sites to confirm capture. Thus, vacuum fluctuations that lower SNR can be minimized.

Stability and 1.55 km Baseline

It took amazing engineering to prove this theory. The researchers shielded the 1.55 kilometer fiber link between the labs from outside vibrations to keep it stable. They clamped loud equipment in sand sacks and wrapped fibers in sand-filled rubber tubes to decrease vibrations.

By expanding the interferometer's phase auto-correlation time from 4 to 500 milliseconds, these changes enabled active phase locking. Heralding showed that the quantum approach can "clean" weak signals by exhibiting non-local phase detection with a visibility enhancement from 0.031 to 0.090.

A New Imaging Horizon

This “quantum-enhanced” imaging has several uses. Researchers believe this method may be the answer for exoplanet identification, where the parent star's glare and noise hide the planet's light. Scientists could use quantum algorithms to find details about other planets' surfaces or atmospheres.

Overview

This study proposes a universal method for extracting work from quantum systems without prior knowledge of the quantum state. Helmholtz free energy suggested that maximum work was feasible only if the experimenter had a complete classical description of the input. The authors demonstrate that Schur-Weyl duality and the symmetry of numerous state copies can maximize efficiency in a state-agnostic method. This innovation removes practical barriers by avoiding quantum state tomography's high energy and resource expenses.

The work applies these conclusions to infinite-dimensional systems, which is important for bosonic quantum computing. These results show that work extraction in the asymptotic limit is not limited by knowledge.

Researchers Get Energy from the Unknown

The University of Tokyo found that energy may be efficiently gathered from quantum systems even when the user is unaware of the system's state, pushing physics and information constraints. Kaito Watanabe and Ryuji Takagi tackle a quantum thermodynamics "information bottleneck" with their study.

Information Tax on Quantum Energy

Quantum thermodynamics seeks to maximize work from tiny systems. Physics has long considered the system's Helmholtz free energy the "gold standard" for this job. However, an experimenter needs a comprehensive classical description of the quantum state to reach this limit. These are called “state-aware” situations.

This is a major challenge in real life. Quantum states cannot be fully described since they are often the result of complex processes like deep quantum circuits or random noise. To map the state, “quantum state tomography” is theoretically possible but unproductive. Tomography employs many copies of the state to identify its identity, reducing the “work per copy” gathered. Tomography system measurement may be more laborious than the system itself.

A Global Approach

Watanabe and Takagi invented a “universal work extraction protocol”. Unlike other protocols, this one's description is input-independent. They found that the methodology yields the same optimal work extraction rate, or free energy, even without previous information, as if the experimenter knew the condition. Researchers found that having information about the state does not affect the optimal performance of asymptotic work extraction. This removes a fundamental operational barrier that has limited quantum technology for ten years.

The “Schur Pinching” Secret

Researchers say “Schur pinching,” a new technique, made this discovery possible. Schur-Weyl duality, which emphasizes the permutation symmetry of multiple copies of the quantum system, is used instead of directly measuring the unknown state.

When an unknown quantum state is simplified into a “classical” diagonalized form to extract energy, critical “coherence,” which gives quantum systems their potency, is lost. The protocol can diagonalize without wasting free energy via Schur pinching. By treating systems as a symmetrical collective, researchers can maintain the ideal work rate as the number of systems approaches infinite.

Three steps comprise the protocol:

Diagonalization is using the Schur pinching channel to preserve the system's intrinsic symmetry. Learning: Estimating relative entropy by “type measuring” a small, sublinear proportion of systems. That estimate is used to extract work and charge a quantum battery or "work storage" gadget.

Redefining Maxwell's Demon

The researchers also discussed Maxwell's Demon, a famous paradox. Knowing the system state allows an agent to extract work from heat in the standard demon experiment. In their study, Watanabe and Takagi say “knowledge doesn’t matter,” although they stress that the two conditions are different. This study examines the system's density matrix, or "blueprint," whereas Maxwell's Demon determines which state has been realized.

Microwave Quantum Networks

A microwave quantum network that functions resiliently at 4 Kelvin (K) temperatures has been shown, transforming the quantum internet. Researchers Qiu and colleagues challenged the scientific assumption that quantum communications are too delicate to survive outside ultracold conditions with this breakthrough. This breakthrough overcomes “thermal noise” that destroys quantum information, enabling scalable, more accessible quantum computing designs.

The Thermal Noise Challenge

Quantum communication can be used for secure data transport and distributed computing. Communication is usually done with superconducting circuits and microwave photons. These photons, however, are infamously sensitive to their surroundings. Even a small amount of heat causes “thermal noise” that swiftly tears down fragile quantum states in a normal environment.

Due to this issue, quantum networks have had to operate in dilution freezers' “deep freeze” (approximately 10 millikelvin). Due to little thermal occupation of communication channels, heat-induced noise does not “smother” quantum signals at these temperatures. The complexity, energy consumption, and cost of maintaining such severe temperatures hinder quantum technology mass deployment.

A New Material Basis

Innovative material science and a new cooling mechanism are behind the breakthrough. The group used a NbTi superconducting transmission line. Niobium–titanium superconducts at 4 K, but aluminum requires much lower temperatures. This material communicated with low loss and great fidelity above millikelvin.

Working at 4 K may allow the system to integrate with more widely used cryogenic infrastructures, reducing the complexity and cost of prior systems' ultra-low temperature needs.

Radiative cooling: trickling heat away

The study's biggest breakthrough was “radiative cooling”. The transmission line is thermalized at 4 K, but the researchers reduced the channel's "effective" thermal noise to levels much lower than the surrounding environment.

The process involves overcoupling the microwave communication channel to a 10-millikelvin "cold load". Rapid thermal photon dissipation into the load is achieved by aggressively connecting the 4 K channel to this much colder reservoir. This results in a very low effective thermal photon number of 0.06, two orders of magnitude lower than the noise levels projected at 4 K. Despite its warmer environment, the channel behaves like it's at deep cryogenic temperatures.

Dynamic Handshake

The group developed a dynamic channel adjustment method for actual communication. First, the transmission line is attached to the cold load to cool. After suppressing noise, the system decouples the load virtually instantly with a quantum state transfer.

The channel "rethermalizes" (warms up) as soon as it is decoupled, but the researchers showed that state transmission is fast enough to overcome thermal interference and sustain quantum coherence throughout the operational window.

Outperforming Classics

Experiments validated the network's quantum capabilities. Without readout error correction, the team achieved 58.5% process fidelity for direct quantum state transfer between two superconducting qubits. They also identified 52.3% Bell state entanglement fidelity. Importantly, both figures above the 50% "classical threshold," proving that the network can sustain quantum advantages in a noisy microwave environment.

The researchers constructed a 1 Kelvin setup to test the limits farther. This setup improved coherence times, providing 93.6% Bell entanglement fidelity. This unprecedented level of precision for a thermally robust network is needed to develop fault-tolerant protocols for large-scale systems.

Proving Quantum Reality

An important milestone was the experiment's clear breach of Bell's inequality. This was done via remote entanglement without reading error correction. The violation of Bell's inequality is the “gold standard” for proving that the correlations are quantum and nonlocal. The network works beyond classical restrictions in high-temperature conditions, as shown by this verification.

Path to Quantum Internet

This discovery changes how researchers approach ambient noise's "bottleneck". The work showed that cool reservoirs and coupling strength engineering may suppress heat, enabling distributed quantum computing. The robust channels connecting modular quantum nodes in this future design may be less susceptible to their environment than imagined.

Rare-Earth Crystal Advancements Allow a Quantum Internet Compatible with Telecom Service

Telecom-Friendly Quantum Nodes

A multinational team of scientists created telecom-compatible quantum nodes using a dual-species rare-earth crystal, advancing global quantum communications. This research discusses how doping erbium ions into a europium-based host could improve optical interface and quantum storage.

The initiative involved the International Quantum Academy, Australian National University, and Shenzhen SUSTech experts. Quantum networking requires quantum repeaters that can store data for a long period and work with regular telecommunications infrastructure. Their research addresses this.

Quantum Gap Filling

A quantum internet uses quantum repeaters as relay stations to extend quantum messages over long fiber-optic cable distances. These repeaters require a platform to transmit and store quantum states with telecom wavelength photons.

The team employs erbium-doped stoichiometric EuCl3 ⋅ 6H2O crystals. Both rare-earth elements serve complimentary roles in this “dual-species” system. The scientific community knows europium's (Eu3+) extraordinary coherence, which is essential for long-term quantum storage. Erbium (Er3+) is ideal for optical interfacing with standard fiber networks due to its direct telecom-band emission and microwave compatibility.

“Frozen Core” Innovation

The study's discovery of a “frozen core” influence is surprising. The researchers used the spins of the erbium ions to shield the quantum states of the europium ions by cooling the crystal to 60 mK and applying a modest magnetic field of 0.1 T.

This raised Eu3+ optical coherence time from 62 to 162 microseconds, which the authors say is approaching the theoretical lifespan limit. This interaction enabled hour-long hyperfine state lifetimes, which are necessary for ultra-long-term quantum storage and may help satisfy the 10-hour criteria proposed in related high-performance research.

The researchers also measured the intensity of Er3+ and Eu3+ ion contact, which ranged from tens to hundreds of kilohertz. This interaction shifts the optical transition frequencies of europium ions, creating “satellite lines” in the absorption profile for accurate quantum control.

A Global Future Technology Collaboration

The team developed the project concept with F. Wang, R. Ahlefeldt, M. Sellars, and M. Zhong. At SUSTech, Mucheng Guo and Wanting Xiao spearheaded the experimental effort, while numerous Shenzhen and Canberra team members did theoretical modeling and analysis.

This project received financing from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the National Science and Technology Primary Project of China. This investment shows the strategic importance of rare-earth materials in photonic quantum technology development.

Toward Quantum Network

The consequences of this work reach beyond the lab. The team has proven that combining the stabilizing and linking features of erbium and europium may develop a promising quantum node material.

Rare-earth-doped antiferromagnets and single erbium ions in solids have been studied, but the dual-species stoichiometric crystal can be used in telecom-compatible architectures. As safe, fast quantum communication becomes more important, these crystals could form a global quantum internet.

Mems News Researchers have confirmed a novel method for managing millions of quantum bits (qubits) without overheating their extremely cold environments, a major step toward large-scale quantum computing.

Singapore's National Quantum Federated Foundry (NQFF) has partnered with Qolab, a quantum computing company co-founded by 2025 Physics Nobel Laureate Professor John M. Martinis, to advance the worldwide quantum hardware ecosystem. The partnership will tackle superconducting quantum processor scalability, a major technical challenge in building a utility-scale quantum computer. The cooperation develops and manufactures wafer-scale cryogenic low-pass filters to replace bulky, manual components with integrated solutions that can support millions of qubits.

The Environmental Noise Challenge

These efforts aim to protect delicate quantum states from outside effects. Superconducting qubits, used by top companies, operate at temperatures near absolute zero. Qubits' extreme susceptibility to high-frequency microwave noise can cause decoherence and processing issues at millikelvin temperatures.

Quantum systems use cryogenic low-pass filters as shields to allow control pulses but reject unwanted signals. Current industry standards use bulky, discrete components that are prone to errors and difficult to mass-produce. Traditional filtering procedures increased the physical and reliability load on the dilution refrigerator's tiny volume as the industry moved from dozens to millions of qubits.

Solution at Wafer Scale

From single parts to semiconductor wafer manufacturing, the NQFF-Qolab partnership wants to change this hardware. This technique uses Singapore's semiconductor manufacturing expertise and NQFF's quantum device nanofabrication expertise. The company wants to manufacture filters directly on silicon wafers like computer chips to integrate them densely with qubit circuits.

Qolab's CTO, Professor Martinis, stressed the need for this modification. He added we need reliable, producible supporting hardware and additional qubits to scale from dozens to millions of qubits to develop real quantum computers. This unique strategy should increase quantum package stability and substantially reduce hardware footprint.

Singapore Quantum Hardware Hub

Qolab chose Singaporean researchers for its semiconductor and tech ecosystem. Through ongoing investments in Research, Innovation, and Enterprise (RIE) under the National Quantum Strategy, Singapore has become a global quantum supply chain hub.

The National Quantum Office of A*STAR supports this collaboration. As a federated network, the NQFF uses the capacities of several key institutions:

Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, A*STAR

The A*STAR Microelectronics Institute

National University of Singapore

Mr. Ling Keok Tong, Executive Director of the National Quantum Office, said the collaboration proves that Singapore can solve hardware difficulties using quantum research and semiconductor engineering.

Global Collaboration and Deployment

This research aims to affect beyond Singapore. This partnership's cryogenic filters will be used in quantum systems at UCLA. This UCLA pledge highlights the worldwide quantum hardware industry's cooperation and Singapore's growing manufacturing capability.

Digital Development and Information Minister Josephine Teo saw the research collaboration agreement signing. The signing took occurred during a significant quantum event that included a public discussion by Professor Martinis on superconducting qubit history and prospects and a NQFF Industry Day with hardware advances from important participants globally.

Road to Fault-Tolerance

Qolab aims to create fault-tolerant, utility-scale superconducting quantum computers. The NQFF-Qolab collaboration is overcoming the cryogenic filtering “bottleneck” to prepare quantum processors for the future.

2026 Cottrell Scholars Award

West Virginia University (WVU) assistant professor of physics and astronomy Subhasish Mandal received the 2026 Cottrell Scholars Award. He received this award for his innovative research into materials that could revolutionize quantum computers, the next frontier of computational power.

A Few Early-Career Leaders

Mandal was one of 24 US and Canadian early-career researchers awarded by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement this year. Teacher-scholars in chemistry, physics, and astronomy who excel in research and teaching receive the honor.

Along with professional recognition, Cottrell Scholars receive $120,000 to develop their academic and scientific careers.

Mandal expressed gratitude for the RCSA's recognition, which will aid in his pursuit of sensitive materials for powerful, error-free quantum computing.

Quantum Matter Tuning Science

Mandal focuses on “tuning quantum matter and phases through strong electronic interaction”. His research aims to forecast quantum phases in “heterostructures” and unusual materials using modern computer methods. Heterostructures with strong electron interactions commonly exhibit high-temperature superconductivity.

Physics defines “strong electronic interaction” as systems with intricate collective features induced by electrons not being separate particles. Layer materials on “heterostructures” to create distinct electrical properties.

Claim that quantum state instability is a major challenge for quantum computing. Mandal studies materials that can preserve quantum states in the face of ambient noise, which generally collapses them. Mandal's research team solves quantum mechanical equations with high-performance computation to predict novel materials and phases for highly linked quantum systems without tweaking parameters.

For the past decade, solving these equations has been used to forecast materials, but Mandal said highly coupled quantum materials are still challenging to forecast without changeable parameters. He employs powerful computers to overcome this.

Accelerating Real-World Results

Mandal wants to speed quantum computing's practical applications, even though most of it is theoretical. By discovering materials that reliably hold quantum information, his research is helping the industry construct error-free, functional quantum processors.

Mandal's honor transcends beyond the lab. The Cottrell Award promotes research-teaching collaboration. The funding will boost high school and college quantum science instruction at Mandal.

Helping Underserved Communities

This schooling initiative serves rural and underprivileged children. Mandal will offer numerous activities to engage these students, including:

Online education modules for remote pupils.

Modern physics seminars with hands-on experience.

Undergraduate research opportunities for scientific innovation.

Maura McLaughlin, the department chair and Eberly Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy, complimented Mandal's academic accomplishments. She called him one of the department's “brightest stars” for his groundbreaking research and excellent undergraduate and graduate teaching.

Realizing the Land-Grant Mission

Mandal's outreach shows WVU's land-grant mission, says McLaughlin. This goal emphasizes the university's commitment to serve the public by providing poor students across the state with cutting-edge scientific information.