Quantum News Nexus

Quantum News Nexus is a new site from freelance writer and editor Dan O’Shea that covers quantum computing, quantum sensing, quantum networking, quantum-safe security, and more. You can find him on X @QuantumNewsGuy and doshea14@gmail.com.

Very few people outside of the quantum sector were talking about IonQ at the beginning of this year. Now, social media channels are filled with feisty debates about whether IonQ is a meme stock or a firm whose real merit finally is being recognized. 

What can’t be debated is how good a job the company is doing at giving people reasons to keep talking. It came up with another one Tuesday, announcing that it has worked with the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) to successfully demonstrate “the frequency conversion of photons from visible wavelengths used to interface with trapped barium ions, into telecom wavelengths on a prototype system.” Essentially, this means the laser light used to create and control qubits in trapped-ion quantum computers is being transformed into wavelengths that can carry quantum information efficiently over long distances.

IonQ called this a “critical milestone” on the route toward achieving the ability to interconnect quantum computers over large distances via existing fiber network infrastructure. In the company’s press release, Niccolo de Masi, Chairman and CEO of IonQ, described the next step: “We will soon connect two quantum computers over standard wavelengths, opening the floodgates for broadly networked quantum devices using commercial fiber infrastructure.”

Very few people outside the quantum sector were talking about quantum networks at the beginning of this year. But they have represented an important ingredient in IonQ’s growth story as the company this year has acquired multiple firms playing in this segment, including Lightsynq, Capella Space, Qubitekk, and ID Quantique.

This demonstration is a very important step for quantum networks, and follows other significant quantum network research achievements in recent months. It represents something that the sector needs to know how to do if it wants to realize the vision of a “quantum internet,” but we should probably tap the brakes on the hype train right about there. 

The reality is that a few smaller quantum networks already do exist, like EPB Quantum in Chattanooga, Tenneesee (supported by IonQ), BT’s London metro trial network, and Qunnect’s GothamQ test network in NYC. Their commercial viability remains an open question (though EPB has claimed it has seen its initial investment “more than pay for itself.”) There also are numerous quantum network testbeds throughout academia, like the one Purdue University talked about recently.

However, large-scale quantum networks will not arrive tomorrow, and IonQ didn’t just invent the Easy Button to make them happen. In a world where there continues to be much disagreement over when quantum computers will be commercially viable, it is even harder to find common estimates for how long it will take to create the large-scale quantum networks that will form a viable and reliable quantum internet. 

We have not even talked about how expensive the quantum internet will be to build and use. And, don’t forget all the regulators that will want to get their hands on it. They won’t understand it, but that has never stopped them before.

IonQ fans may latch onto this as the next reason to pump the stock value, and it is another feather in the company’s cap, but as it relates more broadly to the development of commercial quantum networks and a global quantum internet, here is so much left to be done.