Materials for Quantum Information Science: Roles in the Quantum Evolution 2.0
Abstract
Quantum information science is entering a second phase, the Quantum Evolution 2.0, in which the challenge has shifted from demonstrating coherent control of individual quantum states to building scalable multi-qubit processors and networks. This transition places materials science at the center of the field. Across superconducting circuits, quantum defects, quantum photonic devices, and emerging materials platforms, including two-dimensional materials and heterostructures, performance is now limited less by device design than by poorly controlled surfaces, buried interfaces, and defects whose atomic identities remain incompletely known. This review surveys the materials challenges of these quantum platforms together with the characterization methods needed to resolve them. For each platform we identify the dominant decoherence mechanisms, the current state of materials understanding, and the most pressing open materials problems. A cross-platform comparison then reveals a shared structure-coherence problem. The implicated material chemistry recurs across platforms, involving light elements in disordered or buried environments, yet no platform can quantitatively connect a specific atomic-scale structure to a measured change in coherence. We close by identifying three needs, mechanistic understanding of decoherence at the atomistic level, high-throughput proxy metrics predictive of device performance, and characterization tools built for quantum materials, whose resolution would advance coherence, scalability, and integration across all platforms.
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BibTeX
@misc{pham2026materials,
title = {{Materials for Quantum Information Science: Roles in the Quantum Evolution 2.0}},
author = {Thang Pham and Vsevolod Ivanov and Dominic P. Goronzy and Abhiram Devata and Joshua Feldon and David Barton and You Zhou},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.09371},
eprint = {2609.09371},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.09371},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Materials for Quantum Information Science: Roles in the Quantum Evolution 2.0
AU - Thang Pham
AU - Vsevolod Ivanov
AU - Dominic P. Goronzy
AU - Abhiram Devata
AU - Joshua Feldon
AU - David Barton
AU - You Zhou
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/08
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.09371
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.09371
AB - Quantum information science is entering a second phase, the Quantum Evolution 2.0, in which the challenge has shifted from demonstrating coherent control of individual quantum states to building scalable multi-qubit processors and networks. This transition places materials science at the center of the field. Across superconducting circuits, quantum defects, quantum photonic devices, and emerging materials platforms, including two-dimensional materials and heterostructures, performance is now limited less by device design than by poorly controlled surfaces, buried interfaces, and defects whose atomic identities remain incompletely known. This review surveys the materials challenges of these quantum platforms together with the characterization methods needed to resolve them. For each platform we identify the dominant decoherence mechanisms, the current state of materials understanding, and the most pressing open materials problems. A cross-platform comparison then reveals a shared structure-coherence problem. The implicated material chemistry recurs across platforms, involving light elements in disordered or buried environments, yet no platform can quantitatively connect a specific atomic-scale structure to a measured change in coherence. We close by identifying three needs, mechanistic understanding of decoherence at the atomistic level, high-throughput proxy metrics predictive of device performance, and characterization tools built for quantum materials, whose resolution would advance coherence, scalability, and integration across all platforms.
ER -