Qubits, or quantum bits, are the fundamental units of quantum information. Unlike classical bits, which can be either 0 or 1, qubits can exist in a superposition of both states simultaneously. This property, along with quantum entanglement (where qubits become interconnected and the state of one instantly affects the state of another, regardless of distance). The principles of quantum mechanics govern the behavior of qubits, and harnessing their unique properties gives quantum computers their potential power.

Professors Angela Kou, Pinshane Huang, Wolfgang Pfaff, and Andre Schleife from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have received a nearly $1 million grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. The funding is for a project to identify and address defects in Josephson junctions, a key component in superconducting qubits used in quantum computing. The team will use transmission electron microscopy to study the defects and losses in the junctions. The goal is to improve the control and predictability of these junctions, which could help advance the field of quantum computing.

The Riverlane team has developed a method to address the data decoding issue in quantum computers, which could potentially halt their progress. The method involves parallelising the decoders for quantum error correction, allowing for efficient universal quantum computers. Quantum error correction is a set of techniques used to protect the information stored in qubits from errors and noise. Riverlane recently released the world's most powerful decoder. The team's work provides a solution to the backlog problem, which slows down quantum computation if quantum error correction data isn't processed quickly enough. The method works across all qubit types.

SCALINQ and Atlantic Quantum have announced a partnership to speed up qubit control, characterization, and measurements using advanced cryogenic hardware. The partnership aims to overcome some of the world's toughest engineering challenges in the quest to build scalable quantum computers. Atlantic Quantum is focused on advancing superconducting qubits and deploying their unique hardware architecture. SCALINQ, with its expertise in cryogenic microwave devices, is providing the necessary cryogenic hardware for Atlantic Quantum's experiments. A key part of this partnership is collaborative research and development, with the aim of ensuring continuous compatibility between the companies' technological developments.

Atlantic Quantum has announced new research showing that their fluxonium-based qubit architecture has the lowest error rates for superconducting qubits. The study, published in Physical Review X, demonstrates how this new qubit architecture can perform operations with greater accuracy than previously achieved. The technology, developed by Atlantic Quantum's co-founders at MIT, is now the basis of the company's quantum processors. The research shows that the new qubit architecture supports two-qubit gate fidelities exceeding 99.9% accuracy and single-qubit gate fidelities of 99.99% accuracy. This is a significant step towards achieving fault tolerance in quantum computing.

Swedish research-based spin-off SCALINQ, from Chalmers University of Technology, has partnered with Dutch company Qblox, a leading provider of scalable and modular qubit control stacks. The partnership aims to combine SCALINQ's cryogenic hardware, including LINQER, CliQ, and BriQ, with Qblox’s modular control electronics. This will enable researchers to obtain a validated, scalable spin and superconducting qubit setup. Dr Giovanna Tancredi from Chalmers Technical University highlighted the importance of choosing the right hardware for quantum computing. The partnership's solution has already demonstrated state-of-the-art coherence and single-qubit gate fidelities.

D-Wave Achieves Breakthrough in Quantum Computing with State-of-the-Art Fluxonium Qubits