A new spin-off company from the University of Sydney is seeking new ways to stabilise quantum technologies. 

Q-Ctrl Pty Ltd, the first spin-off company from the University of Sydney’s Quantum Science Group, has been established with the support of Australian and international venture capital, and will see Professor Michael J. Biercuk transition from quantum physicist to CEO.

“We aim to become the trusted provider of quantum control solutions for all quantum technologies,” Prof Biercuk said.

Q-Ctrl has attracted multimillion dollar investments from both Main Sequence Ventures – the manager of CSIRO’s innovation fund – and an international venture capital firm.

“Quantum technology, harnessing the strangest effects in quantum physics as resources, will be as transformational in the 21st century as harnessing electricity was in the 19th,” Prof Biercuk said.

A recent Morgan Stanley report said the quantum economy was set to double to $10 billion in the next decade.

“Quantum computing in particular promises to totally upend the way we process information, rendering previously uncomputable problems manageable – from the chemistry underpinning pharmaceutical discoveries to major challenges in codebreaking and materials science,” he said.

Phil Morle, partner at Main Sequence Ventures, said: “Quantum computing is an unstoppable new industry that Main Sequence Ventures wants to foster. Deep tech founder Michael Biercuk is developing solutions that will accelerate the development of this global industry, and we are proud that the company will be Australian.”

Despite the exceptional promise of quantum computing, the underlying hardware is highly susceptible to errors. Quantum bits, or qubits – the fundamental carriers of information in quantum computers – degrade rapidly.

Reducing and controlling qubit errors will be essential for quantum devices to scale up to machines that are useful. This is where Q-Ctrl hopes to help, by developing firmware for quantum computing.

“Quantum control is a powerful tool to improve the performance of quantum devices, preventing errors even before they accumulate,” Prof Biercuk said.

“The firmware tools Q-Ctrl is building have had their performance validated in the lab and show orders of magnitude improvement in reducing qubit errors without the need for changing the underlying hardware.”