Quantum hardware startup Photon Queue, a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) spinout and alum of the Duality quantum accelerator program, has joined the Chicago Quantum Exchange as a corporate partner.
Photon Queue — led by a group of current and former UIUC PhD students from the labs of physics professors Paul Kwiat and Virginia Lorenz and based on research developed in Kwiat’s group — develops efficient and less costly quantum memories by storing single photons in free-space loops until they are needed. The innovation offers potential applications in quantum communication, computing, and metrology.
“One of the Midwest’s strengths is the multisector innovation pipeline that shepherds ideas from the lab to commercial utility — and Photon Queue is a terrific example of that,” said David Awschalom, the Liew Family Professor of Molecular Engineering and Physics at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering. “The work began at one of our leading universities, became the basis of a startup company that is being fueled via Duality and other ecosystem supports, and now will be part of driving commercialization efforts as it collaborates with academic and industry researchers — all within our increasingly integrated regional quantum ecosystem.”
Quantum memories, analogous to RAM in classical computers, store the quantum state of a photon or other entangled particle without destroying that particle’s quantum information. Many quantum memory approaches, however, involve transforming a photonic qubit into another type of qubit, a complex process that Photon Queue avoids altogether. Instead, Photon Queue uses motion to keep the photonic qubit intact — and it keeps that quantum system nearby, and therefore accessible, by having it move within a compact space, sort of the way cars might circle at an airport while waiting to pick someone up.
This efficient storage method could ultimately be used to extend quantum networks over longer distances, improve error correction in quantum computers, and more.
Photon Queue participated in Cohort 4 of Duality, an accelerator program for quantum startups that is led by the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the CQE along with founding partners UIUC, the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, and P33. In addition, Photon Queue’s CEO and cofounder, Nathan Arnold, is participating in Chain Reactions Innovations, a two-year fellowship program at Argonne for innovators focused on energy and science technologies.
“Chicago has become a hub for some of the most exciting advances in quantum technology, and the CQE brings the region’s top talent together to continue driving quantum science forward,” Arnold said. “With many exciting infrastructure developments underway in Chicago, we are looking forward to collaborating with CQE members to accelerate the advancement and adoption of quantum technologies.”
About the CQE: The CQE is based at the University of Chicago and anchored by the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Northwestern University, and Purdue University. The CQE includes more than 50 corporate, international, nonprofit, and regional partners.
About Photon Queue: Photon Queue is a hardware company developing high-performance quantum memories for the storage and synchronization of photonic qubits. Their free-space reflection cells and storage loop technologies enable ultra-low-loss, scalable storage solutions for photonic quantum computing, networking, and sensing. By addressing one of the most critical bottlenecks in photonic quantum systems, Photon Queue is building the infrastructure for the next generation of quantum technologies.