New funding set to accelerate Canada’s quantum industry capabilities

A research project led by Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) faculty Dr. David Cory, professor in the Department of Chemistry, has received $1 million to advance quantum metrological standards.

The project is jointly funded through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada's Alliance Quantum grants and the National Research Council of Canada, supporting the implementation of the National Quantum Strategy (NQS). The strategy aims to address important challenges in quantum science, while supporting the development of quantum technologies including algorithms and encryption, communications, computing, materials and sensing.

Cory is working with IQC research associate Dr. George Nichols, IQC faculty Dr. Guo-Xing Miao, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Dr. Labanya Ghosh, postdoctoral fellow, and graduate student Yawen Peng at the University of Waterloo.

The project aims to develop quantum standards and measurement tools with the same performance as current ones but with much lower experimental overheads. Low temperatures and other requirements currently limit the tools’ use in national labs and specialist research centres.

While the quantum industry is poised to be an early adopter of these new standards, the project’s advancements can have wide-ranging applications in telecommunications and nuclear industries, and other fields requiring high-precision measurements.

“Quantum metrological standards derive their precision from universal constants, giving them robustness and fidelity unachievable by classical devices. We are developing quantum voltage, mass and temperature measurement tools using advanced fabrication techniques and novel superconducting materials that operate at higher temperatures than existing quantum devices,” says Cory, Canada Excellence Research Chair Laureate and the principal investigator for the Canada First Research Excellence Fund in Transformative Quantum Technologies (TQT). “By making quantum standards more widely accessible, this project will enable the ultra-precise measurements on which new quantum technologies rely, accelerating Canada’s growing quantum industry.”

The NQS, launched by the Government of Canada, aims to amplify Canada’s significant strengths in quantum research, grow its quantum-ready technologies, companies and talent and solidify Canada ’s global leadership in this area.

For more than two decades, IQC members across seven University of Waterloo departments, have been a world leader in quantum research, and this latest funding enables researchers to further support the NQS mandate.