Glossary

Dr. Taylor Stock loading a sample into the scanning tunneling microscope (STM), used to perform atomic scale fabrication. Credit: Agnese Abrusci/UCL.

Featured April 11, 2025

Chip Fabrication: Arsenic Atoms Transform Quantum Tech

UCL researchers have developed a groundbreaking technique using arsenic atoms in silicon that achieves a 97% success rate for single-atom placement (compared to phosphorus’s 70%), potentially solving quantum computing’s twin challenges of error rates and scalability through scanning tunneling microscopy hydrogen resist lithography.

Gravity from entropy - Schematic representation of this theoretical framework.

Featured April 9, 2025

Quantum Metric Entropy: G-field Bridge to Dark Matter Theory

A groundbreaking theory bridges quantum mechanics and general relativity by treating the spacetime metric as a quantum operator and introducing an entropy-based gravitational action that yields modified Einstein equations with an emergent cosmological constant, potentially explaining cosmic expansion and dark matter through a novel auxiliary “G-field.”

Transducer-driven superconducting qubit scheme. Credit: Lončar group / Harvard SEAS

Featured April 3, 2025

Scientists Develop Groundbreaking Quantum Photon Router

Harvard scientists have developed a groundbreaking photon router that creates an optical interface between light signals and superconducting microwave qubits, potentially solving a major quantum computing challenge by enabling different quantum systems to communicate efficiently without bulky wires, thus bringing distributed, fiber-optic-based quantum computers closer to reality.

Featured March 29, 2025

Certified randomness using a trapped-ion quantum processor

Researchers have achieved a major quantum computing breakthrough by using a 56-qubit quantum computer to generate certifiably random numbers verified by classical supercomputers, marking a shift from theoretical quantum advantage to practical application with significant implications for cryptography, security, and fairness.

A team of scientists from Princeton University has measured the energies of electrons in a new class of quantum materials and has found them to follow a fractal pattern. Fractals are self-repeating patterns that occur on different length scales and can be seen in nature in a variety of settings, including snowflakes, ferns, and coastlines. The image shows a quantum version of a fractal pattern, known as “Hofstadter’s butterfly,” which has long been predicted, but the new study marks the first time it has been directly observed experimentally in a real material. Credit: Yazdani group

News March 21, 2025

Researchers Captured Elusive Quantum Hofstadter’s Butterfly Pattern

Princeton physicists accidentally discovered and directly visualized Hofstadter’s butterfly—a theoretical fractal pattern of electron energy levels predicted in 1976—using scanning tunneling microscopy on twisted bilayer graphene, revealing not only the long-sought fractal energy spectrum but also new quantum phenomena driven by electron interactions beyond Hofstadter’s original calculations.