Our Vision

The overall facility vision revolves around a flexible architecture for deploying state-of-the-art superconducting quantum technology, including processors as well as control systems & software. Distinct from academic and industrial players, the AQT is a priori approach agnostic, not bandwidth limited, and has a broad mandate to upgrade all aspects of facility operation through a combination of user influenced internal development and strategic partnerships with external entities.

Our approach will permit technology rooted outside of the national laboratory environment, for example mature designs in the academic world as well evolving industrial products, to be deployed and field-tested, thereby providing valuable feedback to these other inhabitants of the quantum eco-system and also providing facility users with access to the latest pre-competitive quantum devices. The facility will therefore play a central role in benchmarking different types of quantum technology using a common hardware platform, naturally supporting the future development of standardized metrics.

Our Integrated Approach

The AQT draws from multiple hardware and software resources and transitioning advances in basic quantum information science research programs to the testbed where quantum algorithms can be executed and refined. We aim to move quantum algorithms beyond single, academic, proof of concept demonstrations to a broad range of informative and impactful calculations.

Our high-level goals are to:

Evaluate novel emerging technologies that can potentially complete or replace existing hardware thereby mitigating some of the discovered limitations (superconducting electronics, cryogenic FPGAs, etc.)

Partner with the full ecosystem of quantum researchers in both academia and industry to exploit synergies that advance quantum processor technology and algorithm development relevant to real work applications.

Enable the implementation of a variety of algorithms, via access to AQT quantum processors, that explore directed on demand nontrivial quantum entanglement of unprecedented scale thus accessing the unexplored frontiers of Quantum Information Science.

Our History

The AQT brings together expertise from many different scientific and engineering disciplines across the LBNL and UC Berkeley landscape. We bridge the quantum information science and technology domain in superconducting quantum circuits from fundamental science to applications.

Quantum information related research has a long history at UC Berkeley, with many projects funded by the Department of Defense agencies, the National Science Foundation, and private foundations. Topics of research include: quantum algorithms, high-fidelity measurement, novel qubits, entangling gate protocols, and error correction. LBNL LDRD investments seeded work in quantum chemistry, and further internal investment by the lab provided cryogenic equipment and infrastructure for carrying out cutting edge research funded by the DOE ASCR, BES, and HEP divisions in quantum simulation, qubit coherence, and quantum control.

"The length scales that one encounters when fabricating a sample span many orders of magnitude. The ability to precisely manipulate matter across this vast range of dimensions is fascinating."

John Mark Kreikebaum, Former Postdoctoral Associate