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Quantinuum to open photonics research center in New Mexico

22 Jan 2025

Quantum computing pioneer says site will advance photonics technologies seen as critical to future product development.

Quantinuum, the Colorado-headquartered developer of quantum technologies including computers with qubits based on trapped-ion designs, says it plans to build a new photonics research facility in New Mexico.

Although the precise location has not yet been revealed, Quantinuum said that it is expected to open later this year, and stands to benefit from local expertise at Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and The University of New Mexico.

“This anticipated site will support ongoing collaborative efforts to advance the photonics technologies critical to furthering Quantinuum's product development,” the firm announced.

“Photonics, the science and technology of light, is essential to the advancement of Quantinuum's trapped ion quantum computing technologies, which use light to control and manipulate qubits.”

Key quantum player
Created in 2021 from the merger of UK-based software specialists Cambridge Quantum Computing and Honeywell’s hardware-focused quantum solutions division, Quantinuum has so far raised more than $600 million in venture funding.

Just over a year ago, the firm closed a $300 million round, with the funds earmarked to accelerate the path towards achieving the world’s first universal fault-tolerant quantum computers.

Key partners supporting that round included the financial services giant JPMorgan Chase - which has its own specialist team working on quantum technologies - alongside the Japanese industrial conglomerate Mitsui, biotechnology firm Amgen, and Honeywell itself.

Aside from those supporters, Quantinuum’s customers include the likes of Airbus, BMW Group, HSBC, Infineon, and Thales, who are exploring how to engineer and scale quantum computing capabilities to help solve problems such as designing and manufacturing hydrogen batteries for transportation applications, and developing hack-proof financial transactions.

Quantinuum’s current product offering includes its “System Model H2”, which the company claims as the world’s most powerful quantum computer.

The 56-qubit system relies on multiple lasers and advanced photonics components to ionize, cool, interrogate and manipulate those ions to enable computing functions, with future plans aiming to reduce the size of such optical systems through photonic integration.

Manipulating and encoding qubits with information using microwave signals and lasers is said by the firm to have "distinct advantages" over other quantum hardware, including higher fidelities and longer coherence times.

Quantum consortium
Colorado and New Mexico are also home to the “Elevate Quantum” technology development hub that was last year awarded $41 million in federal funding via the Biden Administration’s CHIPS and Science Act.

The consortium boasts several big-hitters from the technology sector, notably Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Nvidia, alongside Broomfield-based Quantinuum.

Last year the hub said that one of its key aims would be to build open-access “quantum labs and fabs” to enable rapid prototyping and low-volume manufacturing of critical quantum technologies.

Commenting on Quantinuum’s latest announcement, New Mexico’s Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said: “No state is better positioned to transform the momentum of the quantum computing industry into major economic and entrepreneurial growth, and Quantinuum will be a groundbreaking partner in that work.

“Together we will leverage New Mexico's assets, including the groundbreaking work being done at our national laboratories and the nation's best quantum scientists being educated at our universities, to invest in and grow the state's quantum technologies industry, creating career opportunities for New Mexicans and continuing to build the technology of the future.”

Quantum communications
Since announcing its 56-qubit computing system last June, Quantinuum has also revealed details of quantum communications developments with partners HSBC and Mitsui.

In September, HSBC said that it successfully trialled the first application of quantum-secure technology for buying and selling “tokenized” physical gold.

“This achievement marks the latest step by HSBC in pioneering the protection of critical applications from potential future quantum computing attacks,” states the conclusion of a white paper detailing the work.

In November, Quantinuum said it had successfully delivered quantum tokens using commercial QKD (quantum key distribution) hardware provided by Japan’s NEC, over a 10 km-long fiber-optic network in Tokyo.

Quantinuum founder and chief product officer Ilyas Khan said of that development: “The original motivation for quantum communications was the exchange of money, as envisaged by Stephen Wiesner.

“Today, we have demonstrated real-world security enhancements for financial systems using off-the-shelf quantum communications hardware. This opens the door to a new era in quantum-enhanced security with wide applicability, providing commercial organizations with something concrete to utilize.”

Photon Lines LtdOmicron-Laserage Laserprodukte GmbHBerkeley Nucleonics CorporationHÜBNER PhotonicsIridian Spectral TechnologiesSacher Lasertechnik GmbHLASEROPTIK GmbH
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