Wake Forest University has opened its new Nano and Quantum Technologies Laboratory, or NanoteQ, giving researchers access to the university’s first ISO 5-certified cleanroom along with expanded advanced microscopy and spectroscopy capabilities. The facility is designed to support research in quantum computing, nanotechnology, advanced materials, and related technologies while helping move discoveries toward commercial applications.
Led by Wake Forest physics professor David Carroll, NanoteQ is focused in part on developing silicon-based qubits and quantum processors capable of operating at room temperature. The laboratory also provides research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, faculty members, visiting scientists, and corporate partners.
The ISO 5 cleanroom provides the tightly controlled environment needed to create and study the silicon-based qubits used in quantum computing. By sharply reducing contamination, the facility can also help researchers improve the reproducibility of experimental results, an important step when attempting to move laboratory discoveries toward commercial technologies.
Carroll’s research includes the development of quantum processors designed to operate at room temperature, potentially overcoming one of the major limitations of existing quantum computing technologies. Many conventional quantum systems require extremely cold environments, in some cases temperatures colder than deep space, to function.
NanoteQ evolved from Wake Forest’s Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials, which Carroll operated for more than 25 years. Research conducted through that program has produced more than 40 global patents and pending patent applications, along with several commercial spinouts.
Technologies developed through the earlier center include Power Felt, a material capable of converting body heat into electrical current, and FIPEL, an energy-efficient lighting technology based on light-emitting plastics.
One of the newest companies emerging from that research is Quoherent, which is developing room-temperature quantum processing technologies. The company’s longer-term vision includes creating quantum computing capabilities small enough to be incorporated into consumer devices, potentially allowing certain quantum AI workloads to operate locally rather than relying entirely on cloud computing infrastructure.
Quoherent maintains most of its operations in Winston-Salem, with scientists working at NanoteQ. Carroll serves as the company’s co-founder and chief technology officer.
NanoteQ is also being positioned as a shared resource for outside organizations requiring specialized scientific equipment. NASCAR and Alcoa have tested materials in the laboratory, while companies NanoSoft Polymers and Virtue Labs, which license Wake Forest technologies, currently operate from the NanoteQ site.
The facility is supporting interdisciplinary research across Wake Forest as well. Chemistry professor Mallory Green uses laser-based techniques to study the molecular signatures of chiral molecules such as amino acids, with NanoteQ equipment helping her team construct new spectroscopy instruments.
Green and Carroll also plan to study chiral-induced spin selectivity, a phenomenon researchers believe could have applications in future quantum technologies and may also be connected to biological processes.
NanoteQ is providing students with access to advanced research tools that are relatively uncommon at the university level. Recent Wake Forest graduate Alli Swyt used the facility to study magnetic force microscopy and nanoscale materials while developing circuits through lithography.
Wake Forest said fewer than six universities in North Carolina and fewer than 100 universities nationwide operate ISO 5-certified research cleanrooms. Even fewer have facilities configured specifically to support work involving quantum circuits.
The university expects the combination of the cleanroom and advanced spectroscopy capabilities to help researchers produce higher-quality and more consistent experimental data, potentially shortening the path between university research and industry adoption.
KEY QUOTES:
“Physics is becoming the physics of information, and this laboratory is going to play a deeper and deeper role. We can form the nexus, the hub of the people in computer science, physics, chemistry.”
David Carroll, Physics Professor and Director of NanoteQ at Wake Forest University
“NanoteQ has a fantastic collection of equipment that is crucial to doing work at these scales, and exploring the quantum properties of materials. 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.”
Alton Reich, Co-Founder and COO of Quoherent
“An ISO 5 cleanroom and advanced spectroscopy fix that together, one by controlling the environment and the other by proving what the team actually built. That combination will not turn every idea into a product, but it removes a common reason good science stalls on campus and puts faculty in front of industry partners years earlier.”
Trillitye Paulen, Regional Entrepreneur-in-Residence at NCInnovation
