At the Leading Edge of the Quantum Frontier

Partnering with industry and academia, we’re working across the quantum research ecosystem — from theory to application — to fabricate and test quantum-based devices, develop software and algorithms, and build a prototype computer and network. We’re seeking breakthroughs in physics and chemistry, new materials, and more secure communications. And we’re helping prepare the future quantum workforce.

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Quantum materials

Predicting, designing, and synthesizing quantum materials and tailoring their properties to address pressing technological needs.

Quantum hardware

Designing and fabricating proof-of-principle and prototype quantum processors, controls, sensors, and more.

Quantum software and protocols

Developing algorithms and programming tools to harness the power of quantum computing.

Quantum communications and networks

Developing a prototype quantum network based on entanglement to connect quantum testbeds.

Advancing science with quantum

Exploring the application of quantum computing for discoveries in physics, chemistry, biology, and more.

Training the quantum workforce

Growing a next-generation workforce to keep the nation at the forefront of quantum science innovation.

Quantum Systems Accelerator (QSA)

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Bringing together an ecosystem of 80 world-class researchers from 15 partner institutions to catalyze national leadership in quantum information science.

Advanced Quantum Testbed (AQT)

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A collaborative research laboratory and open-access testbed to advance quantum computing based on superconducting circuits.

Quantum Network Testbed (QUANT-NET)

QUANT-NET brings together world-leading expertise in quantum technologies, optics, materials, networks, testbed operations, and other assets from Berkeley Lab, UC Berkeley, and Caltech in order to build a proof-of-concept quantum network based on entanglement.

Center for Novel Pathways to Quantum Coherence in Materials for Energy

Artist’s illustration of hydrodynamical behavior from an interacting ensemble of quantum spin defects in diamond.

This Energy Frontier Research Center’s objective is to dramatically expand our control and understanding of coherence in solids by building on fundamental materials discoveries in recent years.

Quantum information science at the Molecular Foundry

Artist's concept rendering of green futuristic computer chips.

Scientists are creating a “nanofabrication cluster tool set” that allows users to investigate the fundamental limits of state-of-the-art quantum systems. Another effort is developing a unique suite of electron beam-based metrology techniques.

Quantum Information Science Enabled Discovery (QuantISED) Quest Program

Berkeley Lab is developing sensors that enlist properties of quantum physics to probe for dark matter particles in new ways, with increased sensitivity and in previously unexplored energy regimes.

Quantum Materials Program

This program seeks to investigate the properties of strongly correlated materials by shining light onto them.

Advanced Light Source (ALS): Quantum Materials Research and Discovery Thrust Area

Advancing the development and understanding of new synthetic materials and their electronic, spin, chemical, and physical properties.

Advancing Integrated Development Environments for Quantum Computing Through Fundamental Research (AIDE-QC)

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Scientists are developing and delivering an open-source computing, programming, and simulation environment that supports the large diversity of quantum computing research at the Department of Energy (DOE).

National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC): Quantum Information Science (QIS)

Colorful high-performance computer, "Perlmutter," in white room.

Researchers are modeling QIS devices, circuits, and algorithms on Perlmutter and exploring hybrid computing techniques, which integrate classical computers with quantum tech, to illustrate the potential of QIS for scientific discovery.

Berkeley Quantum Synthesis Toolkit (BQSKit)

Photo of gloved handed adjusting a quantum fridge with gloved hands and instruments.

BQSKit is a superoptimizing quantum compiler and research vehicle that combines ideas from several projects at Berkeley Lab into an easily accessible and quickly extensible software suite.

We foster strong partnerships that guide innovations from the Lab toward the marketplace. See our quantum technologies.

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"Using theory and computational tools allows us to design new quantum materials that no one has thought of before! The application of this is vast ranging from finding new superconductors or defects for qubits, to more energy-efficient multiferroics, and even to new ideas for detecting dark matter."

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“With this cutting-edge testbed we are asking and evaluating the basic science questions needed to guide the future development of quantum computers.”

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“Berkeley Lab has the network deployment expertise and protocol knowledge to work hand-in-hand with the quantum physicists, scientists, and device and system manufacturers to ensure the right architecture is chosen to realize the DOE’s vision of a quantum Internet.”

A researcher in light blue personal protective equipment works at a computer connected to the cluster tool.

The Department of Energy (DOE) has renewed funding for the Quantum Systems Accelerator (QSA), a DOE National Quantum Information Science Research Center led by Berkeley Lab in partnership with Sandia National Laboratories. QSA builds and demonstrates quantum technologies and computing prototypes to transform quantum information science into breakthroughs for society. These advances will enable scientists to use quantum computers to design new materials, discover new chemicals and reactions, and accelerate breakthroughs in energy, physics, biology, and chemistry.

At Berkeley Lab, scientists are rewriting the rules of computing, chemistry, materials science, and more through the promise of quantum information science. In this short video, Bert de Jong, Director of the Quantum Systems Accelerator, a DOE National Quantum Information Science Research Center, shares how quantum computers, sensors, and networks are poised to tackle our most complex energy challenges. Collaborating with hundreds of researchers across institutions pushing the limits of hardware and algorithms, quantum research at Berkeley Lab is forging the future of breakthroughs. This episode is the first in our Science Power:Up series, featuring experts across Berkeley Lab on research topics shaping society today, including artificial intelligence, microelectronics, quantum and more.

DOE National User Facilities

Core Research Areas