Quantum advances and funding are flying

Plenty of mindbendy quantum advances are flying right now, and one of the coolest recent ones comes from Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments at CERN by the ATLAS and CMS (both detectors) teams, which observed quantum entanglement between fundamental particles known as “top quarks” and at the highest energies so far. Their work opens a new avenue to explore quantum physics and entanglement.

And the feds continue to crank up their support for quantum R&D within the U.S. A handful of recent investments: The National Science Foundation provided $39M to fund 23 research projects to expand access to quantum research, training, and education; the Department of Defense ponied up $32M for four quantum projects; and the Department of Energy kicked in $65M for 10 quantum computing projects (with 38 separate awards).

In this issue of Quantum Innovators, physicists led by Jorik van de Groep’s 2D Nanophotonics group at the University of Amsterdam share their work using quantum effects to create the world’s thinnest—0.6-nm-thick—flat lens. The quantum mechanical resonances of two-dimensional quantum materials inspired them to explore excitons as resonant building blocks for tunable next-gen atomically thin optoelectronic surfaces. Thank you to Ludovica Guarneri, a Ph.D. researcher working with van de Groep, for sharing her extraordinary work and the cover image with us.

Once again, we’ve got a wide range of everything—including market analysis articles from Eric Mounier and Doug Finke, contributed features about engineering quantum light and spin centers for quantum computing, and articles about a bunch of other amazing work—and we introduce you to three companies you should know.

Thank you to everyone who contributed or shared their cool quantum work with us!