IBM Research GmbH

IBM Research - Zurich is one of IBM´s 20 global research locations. The mission of IBM Research – Zurich is to cover a broad spectrum of research activities including AI, Quantum technologies, neuromorphic computing and novel nanoscale devices for the advancement of information technology. IBM Research - Zurich is widely known for having achieved two Nobel prizes, one of them for high temperature superconductivity in 1987 and the other for the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope in 1986, as well as the 2016 Kavli prize in Nanoscience and is therefore often called the “birthplace” of nanotechnology. IBM Research – Zurich possesses state-of-the-art infrastructure with a variety of facilities, including the “Binnig and Rohrer Nanotechnology Center” equipped with cutting-edge fabrication tools, to tackle interdisciplinary projects ranging from nanoelectronics to quantum technologies. Maintaining a readiness for the development and adoption of new technologies relevant to the information technology market is an important corporate role performed by IBM Research - Zurich. IBM recognizes that the emerging information technologies based on nano- and quantum-technologies will be pivotal for the future of computing and driving the world-wide innovation agenda.
In the field of quantum technology and computing we conduct a range of research activities. In theoretical projects we are developing and analyzing new quantum algorithms for a wide range of applications, such as quantum chemistry as well as optimization and machine-learning algorithms for finance or supply-chain management. Within experimental projects we are working on alternative quantum platforms aiming at technologies that have the potential to boost and complement the capabilities of superconducting qubit technology. We are exploring new paradigms for certain types of quantum applications and linking quantum systems. Silicon quantum dots with exceptionally long coherence times that could provide very small, long-lived qubits are coming within our grasp. Electromechanical coupling combined with optomechanical coupling could be used for efficient and coherent interconversion of single microwave and optical qubits. Enhancing the qubit performance by topologically protected states concerns another flourishing research direction. Quantum fluids of light could serve as all-optical components that manipulate information and could enable much faster switching and logical operations as well as providing building blocks for new applications like polariton circuitry as well as serving as room-temperature quantum simulators, helping to explore certain otherwise hardly accessible physical systems.

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