Quantum Milestone: Turning a Corner with Trapped Ions
When it comes to transporting ions, researchers at Quantinuum have turned a corner. Both literally and figuratively.
The Quantinuum team can now move two different types of ions through a junction in a surface trap, a tiny electrode-filled device at the heart of trapped ion quantum computers.
In a pre-print publication posted on arXiv, Quantinuum researchers outlined how they developed new waveforms that can guide a pair of ytterbium and barium ions through an intersection without the charged particles becoming overly excited or flying out of the trap.
The team tested the technique on a prototype trap with a grid-like architecture that Quantinuum has designed and microfabricated. This trap design will be a central part of future quantum computers such as the System Model H3.
This feat is an important breakthrough in the world of trapped ion quantum computing and for Quantinuum.
The ability to transport paired ions through a junction at the same time and intact is critical for scaling trapped ion systems. It’s also a longstanding technical challenge that trapped ion researchers in academia, government and industry have sought to solve for years.
“What Quantinuum has accomplished is a significant breakthrough for the field of trapped ion research and for our technology,” said Tony Uttley, president, and chief operating officer at Quantinuum. “This will enable us to deliver faster quantum computers with more qubits and fewer errors.”
Smooth transport of ions
Quantinuum’s technologies are based on the Quantum Charged Coupled Device (QCCD) architecture, a concept first introduced by the Ion Storage Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the early 2000s.
Like other trapped ion technologies, this architecture relies on traps to capture ions in electric fields - or wells. Gates are performed on small chains of ions, which can be reordered and reconfigured within the architecture, enabling all-to-all connectivity.
In Quantinuum’s System Model H1 technologies, each well contains an ytterbium ion and a barium ion. The ytterbium ion functions as a qubit while the barium is cooled with a laser to reduce the motions of both ions, a technique known as sympathetic cooling. This cooling makes it possible to maintain low error rates in quantum computing operations for long calculations.
The H1-1 and H1-2 machines currently use a trap with a simple geometry or design that resembles railroad tracks. Wells of ions are moved back and forth along these linear tracks and swapped as needed to run an algorithm.
This linear design works well with fewer qubits. But it has limitations that make scaling difficult. Adding hundreds, much less thousands of qubits, would require the tracks to be much longer. It also would take more time to reposition and reset qubits.
To overcome these challenges, Quantinuum researchers have proposed moving to traps with more complex geometries. The System Model H2 will incorporate a racetrack-like design. The System Model H3 and beyond will use two-dimensional traps that resemble a city street grid with multiple railroad lines and intersections.
This design, however, also poses challenges. Getting those tracks to behave well at intersections is difficult and can jar ions and cause unwanted motion – especially those with different masses. It is somewhat like maneuvering a bullet train and allowing it to turn left or right at 90 degrees, or continue moving straight, without causing the cars to rock.
Quantinuum researchers were able to turn an ytterbium-barium ion pair around sharp corners with little motion. Until now, researchers envisioned having to separate paired ions and move them through junctions one a time, which would dramatically slow the operation. “To our knowledge, this is the first time any team has simultaneously moved two different species of ions through a junction in a surface trap,” said Dr. Cody Burton, a senior advanced physicist who worked on the project and lead author of the arXiv paper.
What’s next?
Researchers will continue to test and refine this new method.
Their goal is to expand from moving a single well to transporting several through multiple junctions at the same time. From there, they plan to incorporate this methodology into the System Model H3, which is expected to be the first Quantinuum quantum technology with the two-dimensional, grid-like trap.
“This new configuration will be key for scaling quantum computers in the hundreds, and then thousands, of high-fidelity qubits,” Uttley said. “While scaling, the qubits will maintain the high-quality characteristics such as low gate errors, long coherence times, and low cross-talk for which Quantinuum’s technologies are known.”
About Quantinuum
Quantinuum, the world’s largest integrated quantum company, pioneers powerful quantum computers and advanced software solutions. Quantinuum’s technology drives breakthroughs in materials discovery, cybersecurity, and next-gen quantum AI. With over 500 employees, including 370+ scientists and engineers, Quantinuum leads the quantum computing revolution across continents.
Last year, we joined forces with RIKEN, Japan's largest comprehensive research institution, to install our hardware at RIKEN’s campus in Wako, Saitama. This deployment is part of RIKEN’s project to build a quantum-HPC hybrid platform consisting of high-performance computing systems, such as the supercomputer Fugaku and Quantinuum Systems.
Today, a paper published in Physical Review Research marks the first of many breakthroughs coming from this international supercomputing partnership. The team from RIKEN and Quantinuum joined up with researchers from Keio University to show that quantum information can be delocalized (scrambled) using a quantum circuit modeled after periodically driven systems.
"Scrambling" of quantum information happens in many quantum systems, from those found in complex materials to black holes. Understanding information scrambling will help researchers better understand things like thermalization and chaos, both of which have wide reaching implications.
To visualize scrambling, imagine a set of particles (say bits in a memory), where one particle holds specific information that you want to know. As time marches on, the quantum information will spread out across the other bits, making it harder and harder to recover the original information from local (few-bit) measurements.
While many classical techniques exist for studying complex scrambling dynamics, quantum computing has been known as a promising tool for these types of studies, due to its inherently quantum nature and ease with implementing quantum elements like entanglement. The joint team proved that to be true with their latest result, which shows that not only can scrambling states be generated on a quantum computer, but that they behave as expected and are ripe for further study.
Thanks to this new understanding, we now know that the preparation, verification, and application of a scrambling state, a key quantum information state, can be consistently realized using currently available quantum computers. Read the paper here, and read more about our partnership with RIKEN here.
In our increasingly connected, data-driven world, cybersecurity threats are more frequent and sophisticated than ever. To safeguard modern life, government and business leaders are turning to quantum randomness.
What is quantum randomness, and why should you care?
The term to know: quantum random number generators (QRNGs).
QRNGs exploit quantum mechanics to generate truly random numbers, providing the highest level of cryptographic security. This supports, among many things:
- Protection of personal data
- Secure financial transactions
- Safeguarding of sensitive communications
- Prevention of unauthorized access to medical records
Quantum technologies, including QRNGs, could protect up to $1 trillion in digital assets annually, according to a recent report by the World Economic Forum and Accenture.
Which industries will see the most value from quantum randomness?
The World Economic Forum report identifies five industry groups where QRNGs offer high business value and clear commercialization potential within the next few years. Those include:
- Financial services
- Information and communication technology
- Chemicals and advanced materials
- Energy and utilities
- Pharmaceuticals and healthcare
In line with these trends, recent research by The Quantum Insider projects the quantum security market will grow from approximately $0.7 billion today to $10 billion by 2030.
When will quantum randomness reach commercialization?
Quantum randomness is already being deployed commercially:
- Early adopters use our Quantum Origin in data centers and smart devices.
- Amid rising cybersecurity threats, demand is growing in regulated industries and critical infrastructure.
Recognizing the value of QRNGs, the financial services sector is accelerating its path to commercialization.
- Last year, HSBC conducted a pilot combining Quantum Origin and post-quantum cryptography to future-proof gold tokens against “store now, decrypt-later” (SNDL) threats.
- And, just last week, JPMorganChase made headlines by using our quantum computer for the first successful demonstration of certified randomness.
On the basis of the latter achievement, we aim to broaden our cybersecurity portfolio with the addition of a certified randomness product in 2025.
How is quantum randomness being regulated?
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines the cryptographic regulations used in the U.S. and other countries.
- NIST’s SP 800-90B framework assesses the quality of random number generators.
- The framework is part of the FIPS 140 standard, which governs cryptographic systems operations.
- Organizations must comply with FIPS 140 for their cryptographic products to be used in regulated environments.
This week, we announced Quantum Origin received NIST SP 800-90B Entropy Source validation, marking the first software QRNG approved for use in regulated industries.
What does NIST validation mean for our customers?
This means Quantum Origin is now available for high-security cryptographic systems and integrates seamlessly with NIST-approved solutions without requiring recertification.
- Unlike hardware QRNGs, Quantum Origin requires no network connectivity, making it ideal for air-gapped systems.
- For federal agencies, it complements our "U.S. Made" designation, easing deployment in critical infrastructure.
- It adds further value for customers building hardware security modules, firewalls, PKIs, and IoT devices.
The NIST validation, combined with our peer-reviewed papers, further establishes Quantum Origin as the leading QRNG on the market.
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It is paramount for governments, commercial enterprises, and critical infrastructure to stay ahead of evolving cybersecurity threats to maintain societal and economic security.
Quantinuum delivers the highest quality quantum randomness, enabling our customers to confront the most advanced cybersecurity challenges present today.
The most common question in the public discourse around quantum computers has been, “When will they be useful?” We have an answer.
Very recently in Nature we announced a successful demonstration of a quantum computer generating certifiable randomness, a critical underpinning of our modern digital infrastructure. We explained how we will be taking a product to market this year, based on that advance – one that could only be achieved because we have the world’s most powerful quantum computer.
Today, we have made another huge leap in a different domain, providing fresh evidence that our quantum computers are the best in the world. In this case, we have shown that our quantum computers can be a useful tool for advancing scientific discovery.
Understanding magnetism
Our latest paper shows how our quantum computer rivals the best classical approaches in expanding our understanding of magnetism. This provides an entry point that could lead directly to innovations in fields from biochemistry, to defense, to new materials. These are tangible and meaningful advances that will deliver real world impact.
To achieve this, we partnered with researchers from Caltech, Fermioniq, EPFL, and the Technical University of Munich. The team used Quantinuum’s System Model H2 to simulate quantum magnetism at a scale and level of accuracy that pushes the boundaries of what we know to be possible.
As the authors of the paper state:
“We believe the quantum data provided by System Model H2 should be regarded as complementary to classical numerical methods, and is arguably the most convincing standard to which they should be compared.”
Our computer simulated the quantum Ising model, a model for quantum magnetism that describes a set of magnets (physicists call them ‘spins’) on a lattice that can point up or down, and prefer to point the same way as their neighbors. The model is inherently “quantum” because the spins can move between up and down configurations by a process known as “quantum tunneling”.
Gaining material insights
Researchers have struggled to simulate the dynamics of the Ising model at larger scales due to the enormous computational cost of doing so. Nobel laureate physicist Richard Feynman, who is widely considered to be the progenitor of quantum computing, once said, “it is impossible to represent the results of quantum mechanics with a classical universal device.” When attempting to simulate quantum systems at comparable scales on classical computers, the computational demands can quickly become overwhelming. It is the inherent ‘quantumness’ of these problems that makes them so hard classically, and conversely, so well-suited for quantum computing.
These inherently quantum problems also lie at the heart of many complex and useful material properties. The quantum Ising model is an entry point to confront some of the deepest mysteries in the study of interacting quantum magnets. While rooted in fundamental physics, its relevance extends to wide-ranging commercial and defense applications, including medical test equipment, quantum sensors, and the study of exotic states of matter like superconductivity.
Instead of tailored demonstrations that claim ‘quantum advantage’ in contrived scenarios, our breakthroughs announced this week prove that we can tackle complex, meaningful scientific questions difficult for classical methods to address. In the work described in this paper, we have proved that quantum computing could be the gold standard for materials simulations. These developments are critical steps toward realizing the potential of quantum computers.
With only 56 qubits in our commercially available System Model H2, the most powerful quantum system in the world today, we are already testing the limits of classical methods, and in some cases, exceeding them. Later this year, we will introduce our massively more powerful 96-qubit Helios system - breaching the boundaries of what until recently was deemed possible.