NVision and HyperLight team up to put molecular qubits on photonic chips

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A quantum start up is betting on molecules as its building blocks. The Quantum Insider reports that NVision, an Israeli and German company, has announced a Nature paper describing what it calls the first individually addressable organic molecular spin photon interface, along with a partnership with chipmaker HyperLight

A spin photon interface links a stationary qubit to a particle of light, which is essential for connecting qubits across a chip or a network. NVision's qubits are specially engineered carbene molecules that work at two to four kelvin and emit photons at set frequencies. The company says they can be laid down as thin films, much like the materials used in OLED screens

To find suitable molecules, NVision screened more than 150 candidates computationally and made 40 of them in the lab. HyperLight makes photonic chips from thin film lithium niobate, and the plan is to deposit NVision's molecular qubits directly onto those chips

NVision claims its architecture can tolerate up to 70 percent photon loss, which would let it use standard silicon photonics. Its targets are first integrated prototype chips by the end of 2026, a live on chip demonstration by the end of the year, and 1,000 physical qubits followed by 1,000 logical qubits on chip by 2030. Chief executive Sella Brosh spoke of quantum's molecular era, and chief technology officer Ilai Schwartz described it as connectivity without proximity

Molecular qubits are an unusual approach, and the ability to make them in bulk like OLED materials is appealing. The announcement gives no coherence times or gate fidelities, though, and the roadmap is a set of targets rather than results. It is an interesting bet that will need hard numbers to back it up

Could molecules become a serious qubit platform? And how believable is a 2030 target for 1,000 logical qubits?

NVision and HyperLight Partner to Develop Photonic Quantum Chipsthequantuminsider.com