\t\t![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Guo.jpg\")
Professor Wei Guo at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. (Mark Wallheiser\/FAMU-FSU College of Engineering)
\nFAMU-FSU College of Engineering researchers contribute to landmark study demonstrating ultra-low noise levels in innovative qubit platform<\/p>\n
Florida State University and FAMU-FSU College of Engineering faculty members\u00a0Wei Guo<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Xianjing Zhou\u00a0are part of a multi-institution research team whose latest findings advance one of the most promising platforms in quantum computing.<\/p>\n A new qubit, the fundamental building block of quantum information processing, invented at the\u00a0U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s Argonne National Laboratory<\/a>\u00a0exhibits noise levels thousands of times lower than those of most traditional qubits. The study was\u00a0published in Nature Electronics<\/a>.<\/p>\n Noise refers to disturbances in the environment that diminish a qubit\u2019s performance. The platform is built by trapping single electrons on the surface of frozen neon gas, and the recent findings position it as a strong contender in the field of high-performance quantum technologies.<\/p>\n The\u00a0new study<\/a>\u00a0was jointly led by Argonne and the University of Notre Dame. Faculty at Florida State University, the University of Chicago, Harvard University and Northeastern University collaborated on the research.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the biggest obstacles in quantum computing is finding a material environment that is quiet enough for qubits to survive, yet practical enough for building larger systems,\u201d said Guo, a professor in the\u00a0Department of Mechanical Engineering<\/a>\u00a0at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and researcher at the\u00a0National High Magnetic Field Laboratory<\/a>. \u201cThis study shows that solid neon offers a very compelling combination of cleanliness, stability and resilience. That is exactly the kind of foundation we need if we want quantum hardware to become more robust and scalable.\u201d<\/p>\n Quantum computing: Potentially transformative, but challenged by noise<\/p>\n Today\u2019s computers and smartphones run on bits, which are tiny switches that can be either 0 or 1. Quantum computers use a special kind of bit known as qubits that can be 0 and 1 at the same time. What\u2019s more, the state of one qubit can instantly affect another qubit\u2019s state, even if they are on opposite sides of the planet.<\/p>\n The remarkable properties of qubits can endow quantum computers with exponentially greater computational power than that of classical computers. This opens the door to solving challenging problems like inventing disease-curing drugs, advancing materials design, enabling secure communication and optimizing complex supply chains.<\/p>\n Yet quantum computers are still an emerging technology. Qubits are extremely sensitive to noise \u2014 tiny disturbances in the environment such as electromagnetic fields, heat and particle vibrations. As a result, qubits tend to have short coherence times, meaning they can only retain information for a fraction of a second.<\/p>\n Most of today\u2019s chip-based qubits are made of semiconducting or superconducting materials. But these qubits are often challenged by noise from material defects, embedded charges and fabrication variability. The electron-on-neon qubit has the potential to address these limitations.<\/p>\n In 2022, Argonne scientists at the\u00a0Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM)<\/a>, a DOE Office of Science user facility,\u00a0invented a fundamentally new type of qubit made by freezing neon gas into a solid and spraying electrons from a light bulb filament onto the solid. A special electrode traps a single electron just above the neon\u2019s surface. The electron serves as the qubit, with the electron\u2019s motion in space representing the qubit\u2019s 0 and 1 states.<\/p>\n In this platform, electrons reside in a vacuum just above the neon surface rather than deep inside a conventional solid, which means they are naturally less exposed to the defects and fluctuating environments that often limit qubit performance in other solid-state platforms. Earlier studies had already shown that electrons on solid neon could function as qubits and achieve remarkably strong coherence under highly protected conditions. This new work takes an important next step by showing that the platform remains quiet and functional under less ideal conditions more relevant to future quantum hardware.<\/p>\n Testing for resilience<\/p>\n The study evaluated the platform\u2019s quietness with a systematic noise characterization. Rather than testing the device only under its most protected operating condition, the team examined how the qubit behaved away from the charge-insensitive \u201csweet spot\u201d and at elevated temperatures, where environmental disturbances become more consequential, allowing researchers to probe the practical resilience of the platform under realistic operating conditions.<\/p>\n The study team found that the noise in the neon qubit platform is 10 to 10,000 times lower than that in most semiconducting qubits and rivals the lowest semiconductor noise records. The researchers also found that the qubits can maintain coherence times above 1 microsecond at temperatures up to 400 millikelvins, a noteworthy result because quantum devices generally become more vulnerable to decoherence as temperature rises.<\/p>\n \u201cOur work shows that solid neon is not only an exceptionally clean host for trapped-electron qubits, but also a surprisingly robust one,\u201d said Xianjing Zhou, assistant professor in the\u00a0Department of Mechanical Engineering<\/a>\u00a0at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and a corresponding author of the paper. \u201cThat is exciting because reducing noise and relaxing temperature constraints are both essential for pushing quantum devices beyond carefully protected laboratory demonstrations toward more realistic technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n That temperature robustness could prove especially valuable for scaling. Quantum processors typically operate at extremely low temperatures, where cooling power is limited and system engineering becomes increasingly difficult. A qubit platform that remains coherent at higher temperatures could ease one of the major bottlenecks in building larger and more practical quantum systems.<\/p>\n \u201cBy carefully characterizing the noise seen by the qubit, we can begin to understand why this platform performs so well and where further improvements can be made,\u201d said Xu Han, scientist at Argonne National Laboratory and co-corresponding author of the study. \u201cThat insight is important as we work toward more advanced trapped-electron quantum devices.\u201d<\/p>\n A growing quantum hub in Tallahassee<\/p>\n Guo\u2019s and Zhou\u2019s contributions to this research reflect a broader and growing investment in quantum science taking shape at FSU.<\/p>\n Florida State University\u2019s Quantum Initiative<\/a>\u00a0aims to advance quantum science and engineering and accelerate the development of technologies that could reshape computing, communication, sensing and understanding of the physical world. The FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, in partnership with Florida A&M University, is\u00a0establishing the Center for Quantum Science and Engineering<\/a>.<\/p>\n Together, these institutional investments are helping build a strong regional ecosystem for quantum research and education, creating opportunities for students to engage in cutting-edge research, deepen their technical expertise and prepare for careers in the rapidly growing quantum workforce.<\/p>\n The study\u2019s authors included Xu Han and Yizhong Huang at Argonne, and Xinhao Li, who was at Argonne when this research was conducted; Yutian Wen and Dafei Jin at the University of Notre Dame; Christopher S. Wang and Brennan Dizdar at the University of Chicago;\u00a0Wei Guo\u00a0and\u00a0Xianjing Zhou\u00a0at FSU and the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering; and Xufeng Zhang at Northeastern University.<\/p>\n The research was supported by DOE\u2019s Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Argonne\u2019s Laboratory Directed Research and Development program, Julian Schwinger Foundation for Physics Research, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, National Science Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Program, and the France and Chicago Collaborating in the Sciences program. Guo\u2019s research was additionally supported by an NSF grant through Florida A&M University and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Grant through Florida State University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Professor Wei Guo at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. (Mark Wallheiser\/FAMU-FSU College of Engineering) FAMU-FSU College of Engineering…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[78537,65729,66230,115030,232,234,233],"class_list":["post-267486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-department-of-mechanical-and-aerospace-engineering","tag-famu-fsu-college-of-engineering","tag-national-high-magnetic-field-laboratory","tag-quantum-science-and-engineering","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Qubit.jpg\")
An electron (represented by the ball) is controlled by a resonator (red wires) above a solid neon surface (the transparent square piece under the ball). Noise (disturbances) in the environment (represented by the distortion) becomes quiet around the electron and neon (clear area). (Image by Xu Han\/Argonne National Laboratory.)
\nSolid neon is less noisy<\/p>\n