Quantum computers are often described as the supercharged engines of the future — machines capable of solving certain problems that are classically intractable for today’s most powerful computers.
But there’s a catch: even the most advanced quantum computers can’t yet easily communicate with one another over long distances.
“It’s like building a network of high-capacity power plants without the transmission lines needed to connect them into a grid,” said Yanan (Laura) Wang, a Nebraska Engineering researcher who is working to build that missing piece, with support from one of the U.S. Department of Energy’s most competitive grant programs.
Wang, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, received a five-year, $876,663 DOE Early Career Research Program award, which runs through August 2030.
The objective is to solve one of the most challenging engineering problems in quantum technology.
Today’s quantum computers, developed by industry leaders like IBM and Google, operate using microwave frequency signals, while quantum communication systems — needed to link those computers together — use light at frequencies hundreds of thousands of times higher.
“The computation unit and the communication unit have this huge frequency mismatch,” Wang said. “That’s why it requires a bridge to transfer the information between those two.”
Without that bridge, a true quantum network — the equivalent of the internet for quantum machines — remains out of reach. This research, Wang said, would allow these quantum computers to more easily work and communicate with each other much like today’s classical computing systems work.
Wang’s solution centers on quantum grade mechanical resonators and waveguides, devices capable of interacting with both microwave and optical signals. Her team will build these devices using van der Waals-layered crystals, a family of materials that includes graphene and other atomically thin semiconductors. These materials can be peeled down to a single atomic layer while retaining exceptional strength, making them ideal for high performance mechanical devices.
“They are just atomically thin… but the in plane covalent bonds are really strong,” Wang said, noting that graphene’s carbon structure shares the same elemental foundation as diamond.
Wang’s research will explore “quantum and nonclassical states in phononic and optomechanical devices enabled by van der Waals layered crystals,” with the goal of creating integrated quantum photonic–phononic circuits capable of coherent information processing and quantum signal routing. These circuits would serve as the long-awaited connector between quantum processors and quantum communication lines.
Wang sees this work as essential for the field’s next stage. While major strides have been made in quantum computing hardware, she notes that the systems remain isolated.
“Although there are already commercial systems, they only focus on the individual computer itself, not connecting with other units through a network yet,” Wang said. Her research aims to help build that missing infrastructure—one that could eventually allow quantum computers to work together the way classical computers do today.
As quantum technology approaches a turning point — much like the dawn of the internet in the 1990s — Wang’s work positions Nebraska at the forefront of building the next era of computing.
“Going from the classical (system) to quantum is a natural transition, but it’s like things were for personal computer users in the 1990s when the internet started to become more commonly used,” Wang said. “We need that bridging capability (in the quantum realm), and we have the expertise (at Nebraska) to do it right.”
