Page 23 - Winter 2026

Industry News Industry News

NU QUANTUM OPENS

TRAPPED-ION NETWORKING UTILISING SPIN LOSS FOR

LABORATORY IN CAMBRIDGE MAGNETIC CONTROL

Nu Quantum has opened a new trapped-ion The interfaces combine optical microcavity Scientists at the Korea Institute
quantum networking laboratory in Cambridge, technology with custom-built ion traps, allowing the of Science and Technology
significantly expanding its research infrastructure. creation of high-performance entanglement links Semiconductor Technology
between remote qubits. This is intended to exceed the Research Centre, in collaboration
It will support the development and testing of
performance of current demonstrations of remote with Yonsei University, have
technologies that allow multiple quantum processors
quantum entanglement. devised a method to transform
to be interconnected into a single computing system.
‘spin loss’, previously viewed as a
Nu Quantum’s QPI hardware forms part of its broader
The achievement of practical large-scale quantum form of energy waste, into a power
Entanglement Fabric Technology roadmap, which
computing is dependent on the ability to scale source for magnetic control.
aims to establish a robust photonic networking layer
beyond individual processors and Nu Quantum’s
for modular quantum computers. The work builds on Spintronics, which exploits the spin
approach involves linking separate quantum
expertise in optical microcavity mirror fabrication, property of electrons to process
processors into a modular, distributed architecture.
new entanglement protocols and a systems level and store data, is potentially a key
approach to distributed quantum computing. enabler for next generation information Testing showed that the greater the spin loss, the less
technologies such as ultra-low-power memory, external power was needed to induce magnetisation
In 2024 the company announced its first Qubit-
neuromorphic chips and stochastic computing switching. this yielded energy efficiencies up to three
Photon Interface as part of an Innovate UK project
devices, and this new development is envisaged to times greater than with conventional techniques,
with partner Infleqtion.
significantly enhance the performance and energy without recourse to complex materials and
Dr. Carmen Palacios-Berraquero, Founder and Chief efficiency of spintronic devices. architectures.
Executive of Nu Quantum, states:
The breakthrough centres around the identification The simplicity of the device structure ensures
“ The opening of our new laboratory is a huge of a previously unknown physical phenomenon that compatibility with standard semiconductor
milestone as it constitutes the first dedicated allows magnetic materials to spontaneously switch manufacturing processes and harnessing spin loss
industrial R and D facility for trapped-ion distributed their internal magnetisation direction without an for magnetic control is expected to accelerate the
quantum computing in the UK and Europe. This external stimulus, which is important for modern data development of compact, energy efficient computing
state-of-the-art laboratory will accelerate our processing. hardware, for example for AI and Edge applications.
roadmap to enabling interconnected quantum
Information is represented by the orientation of Dr. Dong-Soo Han, a senior researcher at the Korea
computing architectures “.
magnetisation, that is upward for 1 and downward for Institute of Science and Technology, explains:
Dr. Claire Le Gall, Vice-president of Technology for Nu zero. Reversing this direction has previously required
Quantum, adds: a strong current to align electron spins within the “ Until now, the field of spintronics has focused only
on reducing spin losses, but we have presented
material, and it has been hindered by spin loss, that is
“ After years of R and D achieving unprecedented a new direction by using the losses as energy
At the centre of the facility is a multi-node networking the dissipation of electron spin before it reaches the
cavity performance for fast, efficient quantum to induce magnetisation switching. We plan to
testbed in which Nu Quantum will demonstrate magnet. The result is wasted energy and inefficiency.
networking, we are now preparing to test one of actively develop ultra-small and low-power AI
its Qubit-Photon Interface, or QPI, using trapped-
our core technologies in-house with trapped-ion What has been found is that spin loss could, in theory, semiconductor devices, as they can serve as the
ion qubits. This is designed to connect clusters of
qubits “. be used to drive the magnetisation switching, with basis for ultra-low-power computing technologies
commercial quantum processors using a scalable that are essential in the AI era “.
Reference: Tyler, N., New Electronics, 10th. February. ‘wasted energy’ now being used to power the desired
photonic network, enabling entanglement to be
magnetic transformation. Reference: Hookway, P., ‘Turning Loss into Power: Researchers redefine
shared between qubits located in different physical
Spintronics Efficiency’, Electronic Specifier, 27th. October.
nodes.
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