Wake Forest University has opened its new Nano and Quantum Technologies Laboratory (NanoteQ), including the university’s first ISO Class 5 cleanroom for research into quantum technologies.
The facility in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, provides a controlled environment for fabricating and studying silicon-based qubits, while also housing advanced microscopy and spectroscopy equipment.
The cleanroom is designed to reduce environmental contamination during the fabrication and characterisation of nanoscale materials and quantum circuits, where contamination can affect reproducibility.
NanoteQ is led by David Carroll, Professor of Physics at Wake Forest, whose research includes materials and technologies for quantum processors designed to operate at room temperature.
Physics is becoming the physics of information, and this laboratory is going to play a deeper and deeper role, said Carroll.
Cleanroom supports quantum device research
The ISO Class 5 facility provides the controlled environment needed for researchers to work with materials and structures at the scale required for quantum devices.
Wake Forest said fewer than half a dozen universities in North Carolina have certified ISO Class 5 research cleanrooms, while fewer than 100 universities across the US operate facilities at this classification level.
The laboratory will support research by undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and faculty, alongside guest scientists and corporate partners.
Researchers are using techniques including lithography and magnetic force microscopy to fabricate and characterise nanoscale materials for next-generation electronics.
The facility also includes advanced spectroscopy capabilities, allowing researchers to investigate the properties of materials and molecules alongside work carried out in the cleanroom.
From research to commercialisation
NanoteQ is an evolution of Wake Forest's former Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials, which Carroll led for more than 25 years.
Research from the centre has resulted in more than 40 global patents and pending applications, as well as commercial spin-outs.
One of these is Quoherent, a company developing quantum processing technology designed to operate at room temperature. Its scientists work at the NanoteQ facility, with Carroll serving as co-founder and chief technology officer.
The new laboratory is also intended to provide access to specialised equipment for external companies and researchers.
Companies including NASCAR and Alcoa have tested materials at the facility, while NanoSoft Polymers and Virtue Labs, which license Wake Forest technologies, operate from the site.
Wake Forest said combining the ISO Class 5 cleanroom with advanced spectroscopy is intended to help researchers generate more consistent data and move technologies towards commercial development.
“NanoteQ has a fantastic collection of equipment that is crucial to doing work at these scales, and exploring the quantum properties of materials,” said Alton Reich, Quoherent Co-Founder and COO.
We’ll be able to drive this to the point where you’ll have a handful of quantum bits in your cell phone doing quantum AI, and you don’t need to go to the cloud. It’s very exciting stuff.
The laboratory will also provide students with hands-on experience of semiconductor-style fabrication, microscopy and other techniques used in quantum and nanotechnology research.
