In its most expensive project to date, Germany's Cyber Agency (Cyberagentur) has awarded three different contracts to four quantum computing startups — Quantum Brilliance, ParityQC, ...
Oxford Ionics, and neQxt. Their mission is to deliver the world's first quantum computer for "mobile security and defence" by 2027. After that, phase four of the project will kick in, and only one of the candidates will remain. Qubits from defect diamonds A portable quantum computer will be able to function independently of a network connection or a large data centre, which could be critical in crisis situations. These types of systems can also be easily transported and updated in the field. "One of the things we'll be working on with the Cyber Agency is what the desired form factor is," Mark Mattingley-Scott, chief revenue officer and general manager for EMEA at Quantum Brilliance, told TNW. "How small and light does it need to be?" Most methods for creating qubits require large cryogenic or vacuum systems. These types of structures do not lend themselves well to portability. As such, it is no surprise that the tech picked by the German government for this stage of development can do without them. Quantum Brilliance is one of the companies that have won part of the €35mn project allocation. The Australian-German startup makes quantum accelerators and miniaturised processors out of diamond. Something called nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centres, a type of defect in diamonds, can be controlled and manipulated to act as qubits. This means that working with diamond as a material allows the processor's qubits to function with high coherence (that is, maintain their quantum states) at room temperature. "Another important point for us and also for the Cyber Agency, is that this is very much a validation of our vision of quantum computing, as well as our atom-scale fabrication and photoelectric readout technologies, which we've been…