C2QA | Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage

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Working toward quantum advantage in computations for high-energy and nuclear physics, chemistry, materials science, condensed matter physics, and other fields.

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science has established five National Quantum Information Science (QIS) Research Centers. These centers will accelerate the transformational advances in basic science and quantum-based technologies needed to assure continued U.S. leadership in QIS, consistent with the National Quantum Initiative Act. Led by Brookhaven National Laboratory, the Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage is building the fundamental tools necessary to create scalable, distributed, and fault-tolerant quantum computer systems.

Image credits*

* Left to right: heptagon-kagome device; IBM 27-qubit chip; photoluminescence with above-bandgap excitation in layered diamond; and interior of IBM quantum computing system. Credits: (1) Houck, Princeton; (2), (4) IBM; (3) de Leon & Lyon groups, Princeton.

Quantum advantage: when a quantum computer outperforms a classical computer

Quantum computers have the potential to solve scientific and other kinds of problems that would be practically impossible for traditional supercomputers. However, the current generation—called noisy intermediate-scale quantum—suffers from a high error rate because of noise, faults, and loss of quantum coherence. Quantum bits (qubits), the information-storing elements of quantum computers, are very delicate. Vibrations, temperature changes, electromagnetic waves, and other interactions between qubits and the environment or material defects in qubits can cause quantum decoherence. In quantum decoherence, the qubits lose their information, and the calculation cannot be completed.

Through materials, devices, and software co-design efforts, our team will understand and control material properties to extend coherence time, design devices to generate more robust qubits, optimize algorithms to target specific scientific applications, and develop error-correction solutions. To achieve these goals, we will leverage materials characterization facilities at Brookhaven’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) and National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II), device design and fabrication capabilities in industry and academia, and IBM’s Qiskit open-source framework for writing quantum programs and its Q Prime prototype quantum computer.

Co-design research