Quantum computers could someday solve pressing problems that are too convoluted for classical computers, such as modeling complex molecular interactions to streamline drug discovery and materials development.
But to build a superconducting quantum computer that is large and resilient enough for real-world applications, scientists must precisely engineer thousands of quantum circuits so they perform operations with the lowest possible error rate.
To help scientists design more predictable circuits, researchers from MIT and Lincoln Laboratory developed a technique to measure a property that can unexpectedly cause a superconducting quantum circuit to deviate from its expected behavior. Their analysis revealed the source of these distortions, known as second-order harmonic corrections, leading to underperforming circuit architectures.
This illustration uses a layered sculpture to interpret a phenomenon that can cause a quantum circuit to perform differently than expected, increasing the error in computations.
Read more at MIT News. 🔗 in bio!
📸: Amy Pan and Sampson Wilcox
#quantumcomputing #qubits #circuits #electronics #physics
Did you know? Each year, more than 1,500 researchers rely on over 200 tools and instruments at MIT.nano to pursue experiments that span MIT’s disciplines, collectively generating 160,000 hours of work across 88,000 instances of tool use.
Managing such a dynamic environment requires more than a scheduling calendar. An automated reservation system serves as the connective tissue of the facility, balancing demand across diverse user needs while supporting the practical realities of a shared lab space.
Over the past three years, during a period of rapid growth in both equipment and facility usage, MIT.nano undertook a transition to a new platform designed to scale with demand while maintaining operational continuity. The NanoFab Equipment Management and Operations (NEMO) system centralizes scheduling, communication, and operational logistics into a single platform that manages tool reservations and user access while supporting facility growth.
Read more at MIT News. 🔗 in bio!
📸: Anton Grassl
#facilities #cleanroom #nanoscience #nanotechnology #engineering
Lidar systems use pulses of infrared light to measure distance and map a 3D scene with high resolution, allowing autonomous vehicles to rapidly react to obstacles that appear in their path. But traditional lidar sensors are expensive, bulky systems with many moving parts that degrade over time, limiting how the sensors can be deployed.
A new study from MIT researchers could help to enable next-generation lidar sensors that are compact, durable, and have no moving parts. The key advance is a novel design for a silicon-photonics chip, which is a semiconductor device that manipulates light rather than electricity.
This illustration shows an array of integrated antennas developed by MIT researchers (right) that minimizes the unwanted crosstalk that can occur in a standard antenna array (left). This innovation could enable a lidar chip to scan a wider field of view while maintaining low-noise operation.
This work was conducted, in part, using MIT.nano facilities!
📸: Amy Pan and Sampson Wilcox
Read more at MIT News. 🔗 in bio!
#photonics #sensors #electronics #light #electricalengineering
Congratulations to Kaidong Peng, PhD ‘23 on receiving the inaugural Dennis Grimard Distinguished User Award!
The award recognizes MIT.nano facility users who go beyond standard expectations to meaningfully improve the facility and the broader user community through their actions. It is named in honor of Dennis Grimard, whose leadership as the founding Managing Director of MIT.nano established the culture of collaboration, service, and community stewardship. The award honors users who are recognized by MIT.nano staff members to embody the same commitment to our community.
Pictured here (L-R): Dennis Grimard, MIT EECS Associate Professor Kevin O’Brien whose research group Peng current works in as a postdoctoral associate, Kaidong Peng, and MIT.nano Director Professor Vladimir Bulovic. Peng holds a framed 8” wafer fabricated inside MIT.nano’s cleanroom with a photo of the MIT Dome etched on it.
Read more about Peng and his research at the 🔗 in bio!
#engineers #engineering #science #quantumcomputing #qubits
Materials called relaxor ferroelectrics have been used for decades in technologies like ultrasounds, microphones, and sonar systems. Their unique properties come from their atomic structure, but that structure has stubbornly eluded direct measurement.
Now a team of researchers from MIT and elsewhere has directly characterized the three-dimensional atomic structure of a relaxor ferroelectric for the first time. The findings provide a framework for refining models used to design next-generation computing, energy, and sensing devices.
Pictured here, using a technique called multi-slice electron ptychography (MEP), researchers move a nanoscale-sized probe of electrons over a material and measure the resulting electron diffraction patterns. Overlapping regions can be used to create a 3-D scan of the material’s atomic structure.
This work was carried out, in part, through the use of MIT.nano’s facilities!
Read more at MIT News. 🔗 in bio!
#materialsscience #physics #chemistry #semiconductors #nanoscale
A new cluster tool at MIT.nano introduces capabilities that will allow researchers to continue advancements in the performance of qubits, the minuscule building blocks of the quantum computer.
Passersby outside MIT.nano may have recently noticed a complex looking piece of equipment being installed on the first-floor cleanroom. What looks like a sci-fi movie prop is actually a state-of-the-art, custom-built molecular beam epitaxy (MBE): a physical vapor deposition system that operates under ultra-high vacuum to produce high-quality thin films.
With the ability to grow different crystalline materials on a wafer, the tool will support quantum researchers and materials scientists by allowing them to study how film growth affects the properties of the materials used in making qubits.
“This multi-chamber, cassette-loaded, 200-millimeter wafer MBE system is exactly the right tool at the right time,” says MIT Prof. William D. Oliver who directs the MIT Center for Quantum Engineering. “And there’s no place better to do this research than at MIT.nano.”
Pictured here is research scientist Patrick Strohbeen during installation of the MBE system at MIT.nano.
Read more at MIT News. 🔗 in bio!
📸: John Werner
#quantum #quantumcomputing #physics #materialsscience #qubits
Under a microscope, a bouquet of lollipop-like structures, each smaller than a grain of sand, waves gently in a petri dish of liquid. Suddenly, they snap together, like the jaws of a Venus flytrap, as a scientist waves a small magnet over the dish. What was previously an assemblage of tiny passive structures has transformed instantly into an active robotic gripper.
The lollipop gripper is one demonstration of a new type of soft magnetic hydrogel developed by engineers at MIT and their collaborators at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland and the University of Cincinnati. Now, the MIT team reports on a new method to print and fabricate the gel, which can be made into complex, magnetically activated three-dimensional structures.
The new gel could be the basis for soft, microscopic, magnetically responsive robots and materials. Such magno-bots could be used in medicine, for instance to release drugs or grab biopsies when directed by an external magnet.
This work was performed, in part, in the MIT.nano fabrication and characterization facilities!
Read more at MIT News. 🔗 in bio.
#mechanicalengineering #materialsscience #magnets #3Dprinting #engineering
MIT researchers have developed an ultra-efficient microchip that can bring post-quantum cryptography techniques to wireless biomedical devices, like pacemakers and insulin pumps. Such wearable, ingestible, or implantable devices are usually too power-constrained to implement these computationally demanding security protocols.
Their tiny chip, which is about the size of a very fine needle tip, also includes built-in protections against physical hacking attempts that can bypass encryption to steal user data, such as a patient’s social security number or device credentials. Compared to prior designs, the new technology is more than an order of magnitude more energy-efficient.
In the long run, the new chip could enable next-generation wireless medical devices to maintain strong security even as quantum computing becomes more prevalent. In addition, it could be applied to many types of resource-constrained edge devices, like industrial sensors and smart inventory tags.
Read more at MIT News. 🔗 in bio.
#quantum #quantumcomputing #sensors #cybersecurity #engineering
Happy Spring! 🌸🌻
MIT.nano users, faculty, and staff recently participated in a springtime social gathering to decorate pots, plant seeds, enjoy ice cream, and spend some time together outside of the labs. Thank you to the FUN.nano student committee for organizing!
#spring #springtime #planting #community #ThisIsMIT
We’re thrilled to announce that Gang Chen, the Carl Richard Soderberg Professor of Power Engineering at MIT, will deliver the 2026 Mildred S. Dresselhaus Lecture!
This annual event is named in honor of Mildred “Millie” Dresselhaus, a beloved MIT professor whose research helped unlock the mysteries of carbon, the most fundamental of organic elements—earning her the nickname “queen of carbon science.” The lecture recognizes a significant figure in science and engineering from anywhere in the world whose leadership and impact echo Millie’s life, accomplishments, and values.
Prof. Chen will deliver the lecture at MIT in November! More details can be found on our website. Link in bio.
#engineering #mechanicalengineering #powerengineering #energy #microelectronics
Cells are enveloped by a lipid membrane that gives them structure and provides a barrier between the cell and its environment. However, evidence has recently emerged suggesting that these membranes do more than simply provide protection — they also influence the behavior of the protein receptors embedded in them.
A new study from MIT chemists adds further support to that idea. The researchers found that changing the composition of the cell membrane can alter the function of a membrane receptor that promotes proliferation.
Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) can be locked into an overactive state when the cell membrane has a higher than normal concentration of negatively charged lipids, the researchers found. This may help to explain why cancer cells with high levels of those lipids enter a highly proliferative state that allows them to divide uncontrollably.
The findings open up the possibility of discovering new ways to treat tumors by neutralizing the negative charge, which might turn down EGFR signaling.
Read more at MIT News. 🔗 in bio!
#chemistry #cells #proteins #biology #science
A special class of sensors leverages quantum properties to measure tiny signals at levels that would be impossible using classical sensors alone. Such quantum sensors are currently being used to study the inner workings of cells and the outer depths of our universe.
Particularly promising are solid-state quantum sensors, which can operate at room temperature. Unfortunately, most solid-state quantum sensors today only measure one physical quantity at a time — such as the magnetic field, temperature, or strain in a material. Trying to measure both the magnetic field and temperature of a material at the same time causes their signals to get mixed up and measurements to become unreliable.
Now, MIT researchers have created a way to simultaneously measure multiple physical quantities with a solid-state quantum sensor. The researchers say the approach could enable quantum sensors that can deepen our understanding of the behavior of atoms and electrons inside materials and living systems like cancer cells.
Read more at MIT News. 🔗 in bio!
📸: Takuya Isogawa
#quantum #quantumscience #sensors #physics #engineering
