In a milestone that brings quantum computing tangibly closer to large-scale practical use, scientists at Oxford University Physics have demonstrated the first instance of distributed quantum computing. Using a photonic network interface, they successfully linked two separate quantum processors to form a single, fully connected quantum computer, paving the way to tackling computational challenges previously out of reach. The results have been published today in Nature.

The U.S. National Science Foundation has launched six pilot projects to bridge scientific gaps between current quantum technological capabilities and those needed to fully harness quantum properties of energy and matter for practical uses. The six projects join five others that the agency announced in August. Collectively, they are supported by the NSF National Quantum Virtual Laboratory (NSF NQVL) initiative, an ambitious effort to accelerate the development of quantum technologies by providing researchers anywhere in the U.S. with access to specialized resources.

A team of UNSW quantum engineers has demonstrated a world-first: the quantum entanglement of two electrons, each bound to a different atom of phosphorus, placed inside a silicon quantum computer chip.

A research team at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory created a novel advanced microscopy tool to “write” with atoms, placing those atoms exactly where they are needed to give a material new properties.

Columbia physicists have taken molecules to a new ultracold limit and created a Bose-Einstein condensate—a state of matter where quantum mechanics reigns.

MIT physicists developed a technique to arrange atoms in much closer proximity than previously possible, down to 50 nanometers. The group plans to use the method to manipulate atoms into configurations that could generate the first purely magnetic quantum gate — a key building block for a new type of quantum computer.

A team of Rice University researchers reported the first direct observation of a surprising quantum phenomenon predicted over half a century ago, opening pathways for revolutionary applications in quantum computing, communication and sensing.

Researchers have successfully demonstrated the UK’s first long-distance ultra-secure transfer of data over a quantum communications network, including the UK’s first long-distance quantum-secured video call. The team, from the Universities of Bristol and Cambridge, created the network, which uses standard fibreoptic infrastructure, but relies on a variety of quantum phenomena to enable ultra-secure data transfer.

Quantum states can only be prepared and observed under highly controlled conditions. A research team from Innsbruck, Austria, has now succeeded in creating so-called hot Schrödinger cat states in a superconducting microwave resonator. The study, recently published in Science Advances, shows that quantum phenomena can also be observed and used in less perfect, warmer conditions.

An international team led by Rutgers University-New Brunswick researchers has merged two lab-synthesized materials into a synthetic quantum structure once thought impossible to exist and produced an exotic structure expected to provide insights that could lead to new materials at the core of quantum computing.